Artist of the Month is a feature where we put the spotlight on the incredible work of one of our members at Disability Arts Cymru.
Our Artist of the Month for May is Caitlin Flood-Molyneux!
Caitlin Flood- Molyneux is an award-winning contemporary artist, raised in Haverfordwest and a graduate of the MFA programme at Cardiff School of Art. Her artistic practice investigates the way we attach emotion and memory to images from popular culture, using mixed media techniques to express subjective experiences of hardship. Her work is both deeply personal and universal, as it charts key moments of her life; a private and enigmatic visual story with which she invites the viewer to forge their own connection. She has exhibited widely across the UK and internationally and has shown work at Christie’s Auction House in London. She is also a very experienced workshop leader. Through her work – as artist and educator, Caitlin aims to empower and inspire creatively curious people with arts to see artmaking as a tool for personal growth and wellbeing. For her, art has always been a way to process difficult feelings and she has enormous belief in its therapeutic power.
It is important to Caitlin that her paintings be not only be perceived just as a visual entity, but also as an opportunity for reflection. The work aims to allow both viewer and artist to muse upon the past as one would when reminiscing to the sound of a nostalgic song, where an initially faint memory becomes a vivid recollection. From love and loss to grief and anger, and from the graphic to the painterly the contrasts inherent in the works result in visceral highly expressive paintings.
Recently Caitlin was Shortlisted for the Forbes 30 Under 30 Europe list and is about to exhibit in Sothebys for Fair Shot’s Charity Auction “Art + Neurodiversity” with SOTA Marketplace. Currently Caitlin is working on her Arts Council of Wales project ‘Going Away In Order To Return’ which will be a touring exhibition in Wales. Starting in Haverhub in Haverfordwest then travelling to “Art in the Attic” in The Factory in Porth and ending in Cardiff in Cardiff Umbrella. This new body of work is reflective of the artist’s desire to show work in the communities in which she grew up, after moving away from home and having lived and worked in major cities, she passionately believes that people who are curious about art need to experience art locally in accessible contexts.
Caitlin said:
“I believe that if you have a passion just go for it. I come from a working class family and I thought I’d never be where I am today. I was told by teachers I’d never amount to anything. Passion and drive is all you need.”
For more information on Caitlin and news on the “Going Away in Order to Return” Project, look on Caitlin’s website or Instagram.
Artwork: “Ambush”, Oil, Collage & Mixed Media on Canvas, 120 x 120cm, 2023