Featured: Carole Sesko
by Elisabeth Korb
Rife with symbols, the artwork of Carole Sesko often pops with the clean lines of a box-shaped house, the simple curves of a guitar or perhaps the plump form of a heart. But don’t necessarily read into this use of recognizable forms as symbolism.
“It’s not so much about the idea but the shape,” says the Truckee artist. Since beginning to paint seriously in 1993, she’s been fascinated by simplicity. Inspiration came from the likes of Rothko and Calder, influence from her many fields of study, including music theory, ethnomusicology, cultural anthropology, environmental design, geography and textile/clothing design.
Seen in three-dimension, Sesko’s paintings have a luminous quality, imparted by a skilled, self-taught use of metallic colors and stains with washes. “There is literally a point in the room that you walk by and the painting flashes at you,” she says. For one such painting, The Neighborhood—which hung on the wall this past winter at her temporary exhibit space at The Rock in Truckee—Sesko paired a copper base color with washes of red, magenta and purple for a subtle, rich sheen.
Found objects are also incorporated into much of Sesko’s mixed media repertoire. “I am fascinated by texture,” she says. What started as bringing metal, glass, paper, wood, old sewing patterns and maps to the canvas with acrylic-mediums has expanded these days to fabric, a material with which the artist is quite familiar having studied clothing design at UC Davis. “By incorporating more fabrics and lace, I’m really coming full circle now,” Sesko says.
The artist has seen a shift in her techniques over the years, and is not afraid to change or challenge her ways. “My works are becoming more and more process-driven,” she says, noting that she prefers palette knife over paintbrush. Sesko will even deconstruct old paintings, turning them into something new if the mood strikes. One of her more recent works, Aerial Landscape, went through three stages before ending with its gold and gray color scheme. At first it was electric, with bright dynamic colors. “Then I just wailed on it,” Sesko says.
As with Aerial Landscape, some of her newer works delve further into the abstract, with Gru-Vee perhaps being the most so to date. “I really dared myself to see how loose I could get,” says Sesko. A mash of hot pink color, Gru-Vee departs from Sesko’s signature metallics, instead combining gel and molding paste to play with the contrast between sheen and matte.
It’s this fun, daring nature that defines many aspects of Sesko’s art world. Last fall, she moved her studio from Industrial Way to her home to “create more freedom.” Yet she’ll likely move her space again in a few years, and she feels every artist should do such: “I found so many things, got rid of dead ideas,” she says. A self-described neat freak, Sesko says her home studio is an organized mess. And she’s had to learn to embrace this disorder that comes with creating art. She explains with a story of the first time she saw a photo of Calder’s studio: “Stuff was everywhere; it horrified me! But as I get deeper into my process, I admit things can get Calder-thick. There has to be a certain amount of chaos around to create something simple and elegant. You have to be comfortable with both ends.”
Perhaps it’s this balancing act—more than her mellow, nurturing nature, long blond hair and purple-rimmed glasses—that best defines Sesko. A fixture in the Truckee and North Tahoe community she has called home for over 20 years, she has, herself, become a symbol for local arts and culture. Her temporary studio space at The Rock became a stage for poetry readings by local writers and performers—attendees starting calling it “Carole’s Culture Club.” She serves on the Truckee Historic Preservation Advisory Commission, wrote an arts column for Moonshine Ink and acts as ARTour coordinator for North Tahoe Arts’ 16th annual studio tours this summer (her workspace will be available for tour for the 15th time). Sesko has even crossed into the building industry with her creative eye, collaborating with Truckee architect Nick Sonder on the colors and materials used on the Crary residence on East River Street.
“I settled in Truckee because there is a strong sense of community, but we are in need of culture,” she says. “Arts and culture can contribute significantly to regulating our economy, and each year we are closer to making it happen.” Thanks to artists like Sesko leading the charge, we are indeed steps away.
Summer 2009