Caroline Z.  Marcos was born (1980), in Alexandria Egypt as a Copt (Christian Egyptian) and mixed Greek and Lebanese descent.

Caroline has a B.A. in Studio Art and Psychology (double major) from the University of California at Santa Cruz and a M.A. in Marriage and Family Therapy/Art Therapy Psychology. At UC Santa Cruz; Caroline studied under Frank Galuszka, Tim Craighead, and Don Fritz, who worked in painting and mixed media using Mica, Acrylic gel transfers, and Bees Wax.

She is currently a Houston-based Mixed Media artist, working in water media, acrylic, collage, and at times encaustic. She has exhibited nationally Juried shows as well local art festivals and actively takes commissions. Before starting a family, she enjoyed counseling at Houston & #39;s First Baptist in the Juliana Poor Memorial counseling center as an LPC-Intern.

Presently, Caroline is a, joyous mom, and active exhibiting artist. She occasionally gives back to the community by teaching art therapy workshops at the Pearl Fincher Museum of Fine Arts in Spring Texas, and the Jung Center Houston.

Artist statement

I make mixed media paintings — acrylic, collage, oil stick, cold wax, found objects, and sometimes encaustic — built up in many layers and textures. I call them soulscapes: surreal nature scapes, and entry windows into the soul.

As a former art therapist, my work is informed by the healing power of art. I play in the studio with curiosity, using the materials to work through whatever feeling or life issue is present. The resolve is the painting — a psychological topography moving from despair toward hope, darkness toward light.

For years I have collected what goes into the layers: bark, moss, leaves, dried butterfly and dragonfly wings; old prayer books and bibles, candy wrappers, papers and print. Worked into the underpainting, they become a springboard — for palette, for composition, for design elements I would not have arrived at on my own — and they carry the passage of time and historicity into the work.

I also paint over old paintings found at Goodwill, continuing the image out onto the frame so the frame becomes part of the painting. What was discarded is pushed past its own border and remade as a new object — reclaimed and revalued.

Nature is the wellspring I return to. Its design and patterning reveal a Maker, and with that a sense of purpose and belonging in the grand scheme. Making the work is how I step into that healing flow.