Location: United States
Caren Helene Rudman works with mixed media, photography, and writing. The content of her work explores how energy comes through the body within the process of making art. She has exhibited locally in Chicago and Nationally with shows in NYC. She received her MA from NYU in a prestigious program affiliated with the International Center of Photography. From 2010 to 2012, she curated an annual exhibition, Voices and Visions, Standing on the Bridge Between Health and Disease, at The Art Center Highland Park. The 2010 exhibit, sponsored by Medline, traveled nationally.
Caren’s work examines the dichotomies between self and other, mind and body, and health and disease. After learning she carries the BRCA 1 gene, a hereditary increased risk for breast and ovarian cancers, her work further delved into genetics, linking the past and future generations. In the ongoing project titled, Redefining Beauty, she collaborates with women throughout the world who share images of their bodies, which she uses in her own mixed media pieces on un-stretched canvas. Previving is an extension of Redefining Beauty, documenting her own journey of living under the threat of developing disease. While redefining Beauty reaches outward at the universality, Previving turns inward into real life experiences. Both of these series reveal the process of letting go, and of rebuilding, attempting to connect mind and body within context of healing through art. The metaphor of cancer allows Caren to explore the themes around facing mortality, reflecting that out of darkness comes light and often beauty lies deep beneath the surface.
From the Previving series, mixed media images on canvas sheets. The goal of Previving to reach 365 marks a year of survivalship. The images are not meant to shock or disturb but rather it is to help all of us see the beauty of what lies beneath the surface. Breast and ovarian cancer are uniquely linked to external archetypes of femininity and when that is altered, our identity is often affected. Like the clothes and bras that cover the scars to make us feel “normal”, and “like ourselves again”, the series reveal the layers and complexities of living with our altered bodies. Moreover, the project raises the issues of our body's strengths and fragilities as our mortality is realized. Previving reveals how far we go to preserve health and wellness both physically and spiritually.
As part of the Previving Series this 24 x 18 canvas sheet is 251 out of 365. The mixed media images all begin with a photograph/ photo transfer which is layered with paper, pastels, paint and other found objects. The series reflects on the fragility and strength of the body and it's ability to heal. It uses cancer as a metaphor for facing our mortality in order to find hope, and reveals that out of darkness comes light.
Image Previving 264 out of 365 marks the year of previving cancer. Each 24 x 18 canvas sheet starts with a photo or photo transfer, layered with paper, pastels, paint and found objects to reveal the layers and complexities of living with an altered body. The series reflects on the fragility and strength of the body, with its imperfections. As we face our mortality, we find that out of darkness comes light.
This 18 x 24 mixed media piece is part of a larger series consisting of 365 unstretched canvas sheets. Each one starts with a photo transfer of the body to reflect both the fragility and strength of body and its ability to heal.
This 18 x 24 mixed media piece is part of a larger series consisting of 365 unstretched canvas sheets. Each one starts with a photo transfer of the body to reflect both the fragility and strength of body and its ability to heal.
“Previving 79”
“Previving 1”
“Previving 126”
“Previving 152”
“Previving 147”
“Previving 142”
“Previving 125”
“Previving 251”
“Previving 264”
“Previving 78”
“Previving 336”
