Bondage, whether or not it is portrayed, is a central element in Carolyn’s work. Where many would view the image of a person tied up as that person’s power having been diminished, the characters in her paintings and drawings are powerful.
As Carolyn notes, ‘Fascination with the art of perpetual and constant motion in both animate and inanimate objects have become a central element in my work. I am intrigued by the dynamics and erotic fluidity of movement, the exquisitely contained energy and absolute stillness of the movement within a body captured in bondage. I compare it with the powerfully controlled flight of the trapeze artist, glorious dancer in the air. Draw them into the stop-motion and perfectly disciplined energy of the dancer or athlete, or the primal body urgency of a fallen boxer, taut muscles waiting to attack. All are slices of stilled motion, exploring the inner idea, the corporeal feeling and the outer expression.’
In this section of her work, Carolyn focuses on this sense of movement created by the ropes and the endurance of her long-suffering models. Her portrayal of sexually assertive figures bound and in flight is unflinching.