Caroline Ennis
carolineennis.com
Artist Biography
Caroline Ennis is a visual artist whose work stems from her life-long relationship to the Gulf of Mexico and the coastline of the northwest Florida Panhandle.
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Using installation and sculptural methods that include ceramic, fiber, drawing, and unfired clay, she explores ways to reflect the coastline’s familiarity and the obscurity of deep water.
Ennis completed her BA in studio art from University of Mobile in 2016. In 2019, Ennis attended a funded artist residency at Watershed Center for the Ceramic Arts. While at FSU, Ennis received the 2019 MFA Award, the 2020 Ceramics Award, the 2020 MFA Award, and was nominated for the International Sculpture Center’s Outstanding Student Achievement Award in Contemporary Sculpture.
Artist Statement
As a fourth generation local to the coastline of the Florida Panhandle, the Gulf of Mexico is a great and constant driver in my work.
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My thematic influences are honed from my knowledge of the Gulf that was taught to me by generations of my family and expanded through my experiences on the water. I explore ways to reflect the coastline’s familiarity as well as the obscurity of deep water through installations and sculptural methods using ceramic, fiber, drawing, and unfired clay.
Obscure, glazed ceramic forms describe an imagined topography of the unseen seafloor and handmade fabric netting lightly dips and sways along ceaseless currents. My work intuitively responds to the contrasting experiences that are associated with the shallow waters of the coastline and the deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico.