About

Sketch of a cat's paw drawn by Carlisle Artist Cara David

Drawing of a cat's feet done by South-Central Pennsylvanian Visual Artist Cara David

Photo of Pennsylvania Visual Artist Cara David at Kings Gap State Park with dog Astro

Photo by Emily Reifsnyder, 2021

As an artist, I try to create fun, expressive work about the parts of the world that are important to me like wildlife, nature, and the outdoors. I think that art should be fun, and I like to experiment with colors, textures, and medium.

I always come back to my love of animals and the outdoors. I love being outside and often prefer animals over humans, so I want my work to share with others how being outside makes me feel. I believe that the world would be a better place if people spent more time outside, in the fresh air, around trees and watching squirrels. This has been a part of my art inspiration

since I started pulling photos out of wildlife books as a middle schooler. And it's not just big, wild animals from other regions and continents that are important enough to be featured in art. Everyone from the squirrels and dogs at the park to the elephants and rhinos at the zoo are exciting and interesting. Outdoor spaces and their residents are some of the few parts of everyday life that can’t be controlled or forced to follow rules. Birds fly where they want to fly, Squirrels scamper around and steal food. Trees grow in quirky, irregular ways. They don’t care about ownership or money, and they can’t easily be priced or controlled. Anyone can walk into a park and be a part of nature. It’s safe and filled with creatures that don’t care who you are or why you are there. They just keep living, and I consider that to be special and a good reminder for my own life.

I try to use bright colors and loose marks to show the fun, unpredictable version of the world I see and how excited it makes me. Being in nature makes me feel good and optimistic so I want my work to give others a similar feeling. I hope to create art that celebrates this part of the world that is so easy to treat as invisible or replaceable. I like to use a lot of texture in my work because it shows how interesting and complex those places are. I also work in a variety of mediums including chalk, gouache, marker, different printmaking mediums, and digital programs.

Overall, my work focuses on my love of the outdoors and its inhabitants. I believe that outdoor spaces are unvalued and too easily forgotten about. The outdoors are my safe space, and I hope to share it with others through bright colors and lots of lines and texture.