Carolyn Hunter Mottern
A Window into the Mystical through Multimedia
Voyaging through the universe that’s written, painted and sculpted all by one artist— Carolyn Hunter Mottern.
Pie Time
Digital
4800x3000 px resolution
2024
The art of illustration is as vast a cave as they come, with multiple avenues spanning across digital drawings, three-dimensional works, printmaking and graphic novels. New York-based Californian artist Carolyn Hunter Mottern is inking out a name for herself as a well rounded-practicioner in these fields, owing to her multidisciplinary artworks that she uses as outlets for her castle of fantasies and whimsical storylines.
At the risk of sounding too on the nose, I encourage you to envision her practice as a diorama decorated with dolls and puppets, lost in their world of miniature environments and clothes. Zooming in, each 3d figurine and puppet is a meticulously constructed lovechild of clay and textiles without sparing a single painted detail. Zooming out, the walls of this diorama are upheld by the confluence of both digital and traditional 2d illustrated works.
Unicorn Print
8x10 inches
Linocut
2025
In spite of differences in media ranging from linocut prints, color pencils and alcohol markers to artworks rendered using Photoshop, viewers of her art get to take in understated yet imprinting line work and sombre color schemes. Movement, expression and dynamic interaction between depicted characters breathe life into Mottern’s work, especially when working in union with narratives that she is keen on constructing through her writing.
The art of writing, in Mottern’s case, is fundamental in understanding her practice and objective as an artist. With a narrative-forward body of work and a spectrum of interests stretching from graphic novels to puppetry, she has often found stylistic and conceptual inspiration in the works of children’s book illustrators and puppetry shows like the Muppets and the Bob Maker Marionette Theatre.
In the Yard
11x17in
Mono print
2025
Mottern’s longstanding inspiration lies in the work of Tony DiTerlizzi– the illustrator of the Spiderwick chronicles who she looks to for creature design and other anthropomorphic elements present in her own work. Additionally, Tillie Walden remains at the back of her mind for her graphic novel writing and incorporation of surrealist themes. With that in mind, the concepts in Mottern’s work are an expansive projection of charm mixed with oddities, the fantastical done unusually and world building with themes of nostalgia, magical realism.
Her most recent project The Last Boy, The Lonely Princess and The Electric Blue Diamond is a set of a written story, soft sculptures, printmaking and bookbinding. We see the distinct practices bleeding into and prospering with each others’ help as her two written characters find a place of materialisation in her mixed media rendering and textile-fabricated clay sculptures. Staying on brand, the environments that the sculptures are presented in are constructed using clay, sticks, fabric scraps and paint. The story of the characters finds a pulse in a series of four linocut illustrations and text bound together in a saddle stitched book adorned with felt and beads to fit the theme of the fictional universe, all while broadening Mottern’s perspective on material use and investigations.
The Last Boy, The Lonely Princess and The Electric Blue Diamond
Each figure appx.13 inches
Mixed media (clay, acrylic paint, yarn, glue beads and cloth)
2026
“It’s a great project to experiment with materials I haven’t used before and to practice storytelling in more of a physical space.” she explains.
Steadily navigating the sphere of visual storytelling, Mottern continues to enhance her skill and with the execution and thought behind each project she undertakes, intending to look at her previous works as inspirations and even baselines for future endeavours with the ultimate goal of becoming a published graphic novelist.
