Simply Spellbound
Caitlin Shearer channels the fountain of youth through her paintbrush
By Mengly Taing
Published: July 25th, 2008 | 1:45pm
For her 19th birthday, Caitlin Shearer wanted to spread a little magic among her group of friends. The young Australian artist held a tiny séance at her parents’ home on the Central Coast, hoping to summon the spirit of one of her favorite female muses, Marilyn Monroe.
“It didn’t really work,” Shearer says. “I had planned to have this amazing witching hour with a trillion candles and veils over everyone’s faces and garlands of flowers. It didn’t turn out exactly as I had planned.”
But it has not stopped her from believing.
“If magic isn’t real, then the world would be so drab,” she says. “I’d like to say there is some magic up my sleeves. The fact that my hands can create other people is magical to me.”
Using the wand she calls a paintbrush, Shearer conjures to life, on paper, a bevy of raven-haired damsels, each with her own set of rosy cheeks, bushy eyebrows, and cherry apple lips. They are dressed in Peter Pan collars and feminine dresses with fluffy bows in their hair and hearts on their elbows. And pretty as they are, they hold deep secrets.
They wear patches over their sad eyes, carry golden arrows, and have bruises and blood on their knees. The cause of the pensive expressions on their faces is unknown. Yet, each possesses an inner magic — an inner strength only the artist knows.
“Life is tough and things can hurt you,” Shearer says. “They have to overcome the same things as every other girl. Prolonged periods of loneliness, heartbreak, dissatisfaction with their own faces, just life in general, and the idea of growing up. ”
Shearer’s own childhood began in a pretty house in the suburbs of Sydney, which had a swimming pool and a wild strawberry patch. Her mother and grandfather exposed her to art at an early age — both were artists. As a shy child who dreaded school, she would disappear into her pink bedroom to draw mermaids, fairies, and the Spice Girls, all standing in a line.
“I always loved drawing girls,” she says. “They all hold a little piece of me.”
With the addition of laminated brooches, necklaces, and earrings to her Etsy online store, Pepperminte, those pieces are now being worn on the collars of real, living girls. Shearer, who opened her store nearly a year ago, began selling her work to help pay for her bus fares to the College of Fine Arts in Sydney, where she spends most of her time during the year as a student. Her selection of accessories features bows and cutout faces derived from her watercolor paintings. She also plans to introduce dresses in the near future. The collection will likely fit her schoolgirl aesthetic.
“I’m never going to seriously grow up,” Shearer says. “My girls are maturing maybe quicker than I do.”
She recognizes her girls are changing. They are becoming stronger and their features are becoming more defined. And they are becoming less scared of themselves.
The same can be said of the artist too.
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For more information about Caitlin Shearer, visit pepperminte.etsy.com.
Issue #35
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