AKA, TheCaulkArtist, was born in Beidigheim, Germany in 1975 and moved to El Paso, Texas where she became a US citizen at the age of 8. Daughter to a German mother and African American father, Nicole shares how her travels as a military brat helped mold her creative soul:

"I started my love for art back when I was a little person, creating miniature cities out of old cereal boxes and chalk on the hot sidewalk streets in El Paso. I always had a love for the arts and remember falling in love with my high school art teacher, Mrs. Kusheid, and her passion to have a full-time art career. 

In 1997, Nicole moved to Denver, CO, and art took a back burner to become a wife, a mother of two, and pursue a very active career in marketing. Following the tragic terrorist events of 911, Nicole and her family moved back to Texas. 

Today, Nicole lives in Houston, Texas and after raising two amazing young humans, found herself with waaaaaaaaay too much free time on her hands. "I had literally dedicated my life to my career, being a mom, and being a wife, and honestly, where would I have found time for much else then?  

Life has a funny way of bringing us back to the things we truly love and the passions that call us...and now, I make abstract textured creatives with caulk and whatever objects I can find." 

Why caulk? 

Nicole's core material is caulk, which is not on your traditional painting supply list. More like your trip to the hardware store. Caulk. Not to be confused with chalk (which happens quite often) is the stuff that you use to line your bathtub and sinks, etc. 

"I get a lot of funny looks when I tell people my social handle is TheCAULKartist. Lots of jokes at dinners when discussing the name, product, and so many misuses of the often challenging-to-pronounce material...It's all in good fun and def a great icebreaker". 

Nicole first used caulk years ago while multi-task between a DIY bathroom update and trying to paint an Edvard Munch-inspired emotional self-portrait. "At the time I was dealing with endometriosis and trying to capture my frustrations on a canvas. I was depleted all over. Frustrated with my body, disappointed with modern medicine, annoyed by my male doctor and his lack of empathy, and just pissed with my inability to control myself. I tried to take my mind off of things with my art and was even more exasperated with efforts to create linear effects - nothing was working the way I envisioned".

"While lining the edge of the tub, because staying busy was therapy then, my aha moment struck, and I basically abandoned the bathroom, which still needs updating to this date, to create like crazy into what is Das Rot Frau followed by the first of my Chaos pieces.  

Why not just use a plaster medium like everyone else?

"I get this question all the time. LOL. It's a lame old cliche but, caulk is very much like my life, my emotions. It's messy, it's needy, it's heavy, and porous. While still wet, it's malleable but once it dries it's set forever very much like my grudges. LOL. What I was using and working with was a much more dense and a pliable material than traditional acrylic texture mediums and with some time, love, and care I learned to manage it".

For Nicole, using caulk on her creatives is like sculpting on a canvas, and the industrial feel gives her creatives a very raw, rough, texture, and feel. "I love that I can leave it in its raw, matte, traditional form, or I can jazz it up with a layer of color." 

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View my artist statement and CV here. 

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