We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Kristy Cavaretta a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Kristy , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?

My oversized ( 3 ftx8 ft) woodcut print titled, “Spectra” was meaningful to create but has also been so meaningful to my career as an artist. It propelled me into a tier of artists that were taking my work seriously- this helped me to have the confidence to continue to respond to my world and life through my art and take myself seriously as well. It also connected me with a large community of other mother artists and has really changed my life in so many ways.

To start maybe I should explain woodcut printmaking for folks who might not be familiar? I use plywood as a substrate and remove material with a series of gouges. The wood is then inked with a roller called a brayer- and a piece of paper is placed on top of it before it is run through a press. The areas that have been removed will be white, the areas that remain will hold the ink. Its basically like making a big stamp.

At the time of “Spectra’s” creation, I was working through a lot of guilt that I had for not being able to feed my newborn twins without supplementing with formula – it might sound inconsequential to the outsider but we are so hard on ourselves as mothers – and at the time it felt really big. I was also fixated on the insane amount of unseen labor that went into the first year of the twins’ lives. One detail that I was able to calculate was how much time I spent attached to a breast pump in their first year ( 22,000 minutes.) I started thinking about what that might look like and the week before our Covid-19 lockdown in March of 2020 I bought myself a three foot by eight foot sheet of plywood and started chipping away on this giant meditative piece where I made a mark for each of those minutes.

I loved the experience of having a big project waiting for me to chip away at in the small pockets of time I had while home with babies. There is something nice about knowing that a project is waiting for you to work on without having to start from scratch or develop a new concept when you are otherwise exhausted and there is something that I find really meditative about the process of carving the wood. I’m really proud of the work and I’m so happy to have produced an edition of 8 quality prints with the help of Big Ink (https://www.bigink.org/.)

The piece has since been displayed at Artlink in Fort Wayne, Indiana and at The Rochester Museum of Fine Arts in Rochester, NH. It has been acquired by a number of patrons and also proudly lives in the permanent collection of the Rochester Museum of Fine arts.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I have had a long and meandering creative career. I started in the film and advertising industries in Los Angeles before returning to the East Coast and going back to school for a graphic design degree. I left the design firm I was working for when I had my first child and subsequently took a printmaking class at my local art studio.

Being a new mother and determined to maintain some identity of my own, I leaned into my art practice and found that printmaking works well with caring for babies. I could chip away at blocks I was carving bit by bit and wait until I had time to print a few at a time. There were no toxic paints or solvents around and I find the process of carving so meditative, its a flow activity much like doing a puzzle or coloring one of those super detailed coloring pages. I also found that having left work to raise a child gave me the confidence to be brave enough to embark on an art career. I had no financial stakes attached to it and felt that I needed to seize the opportunity while I had it.

Today, about 8 years after I left the design world, I have had work exhibited throughout the country and regularly show my prints in museums and galleries throughout New England. I also teach woodcut printmaking at my local art studio, Chases Garage, which I absolutely love. I love helping other artists problem solve and bring their visions to life. It is endlessly fulfilling and equally inspiring.

My current practice recently went through another big change as my twins started kindergarten this year. With the extended work day available I have been able to play with my medium in ways that I hadn’t previously had the time to. I am finding myself working on projects that are bigger or more complex than I have been able to in the past and I look forward to seeing what comes next.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.

I think in our American society, we tend to be so profit oriented and end product oriented that the value of process based creative fulfillment doesn’t make sense. For me, the value truly is in the process, it is grounding, theraputic, and helps me to better understand my position in the world. If the work speaks to other people it certainly is an added bonus, but the work itself has inherent value and being able to allow ourselves that benefit and as a society to adjust our thinking to assign value to the experience would be beneficial to so many.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

To me, the most rewarding part of being an artist is hearing that I’ve inspired others. I have heard from some that I’ve encouraged them take the first steps to begin a creative practice after following along with my art journey. In all instances I hadn’t realized that they were even paying attention, so to hear that I made an impact is really the most humbling and rewarding thing. I truly believe that an art practice enhances your life, it’s a gift and it feels great to be able to help give it to others. It’s why I love teaching so much!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://kristycavaretta.com
• Instagram: @kristy.cavaretta
• Other: bluesky: kristycavaretta