An injury to my soul at the age of 5 set my life on a challenging journey. Even as a child, darkness and depression nipped at my heels like a dementor’s dog.
Back then I did not think of being an artist, yet one teacher set out to crush the thought before it ever came to be. I remember him holding up my artwork in front of class to critique it. “Carol, it would be a miracle if you had even one millionth of a talent.”
Since those painful days, I’ve been beating back the darkness and discovering the joy of my small talent.
Color always reminds me that light is present. Without light there would be no color and there would be no us.
A slash of color on black is a defiant act: darkness will not overcome the LIGHT!
This piece includes over 100 houses to remind us of all our neighbors.
Proper photograph credit has been attempted, but if anything has been omitted we would be happy to fix it.
Some neighbors look like they live a perfect life in a perfect house.
Suddenly, within a moment, we can realize all was not perfect.
Every year so many homes are lost to floods, fires, and other natural disasters.
If only it were so easy to rebuild all of the lost homes as it is to paint a little house.
Be surprised by your neighbors, delight them in return.
When I was growing up, one neighbor had a statue of Mary adorning a garden in an upright bathtub.
When I got in a bathtub I was just a naughty Protestant trying to get clean.
When I was young and visited my grandmother in Chicago she would take me to the Museum of Science & Industry. I would spend most of my time at the beautiful dollhouse.
When I came back I would tell my friends a big falsehood that the house at the museum belonged to my grandmother and that I got to play with it. So here I am perched on a dollhouse and you can see I’m green with envy.
Photo from the book “Fragile” with photographs by Howard G. Buffett.
3 days after the photograph was taken, the child died.
Breaking down, and breaking through, the systemic racism.
Love our neighbors.
This is Michael, he stands at Plainfield and Leonard, with the Choo Choo Grill in the background. He is my neighbor.
My storybook doll of Little Red Riding Hood has taken up the protest to protect her neighbor.
Grandma’s have little to fear from wolves, but a great deal to fear from guns.
My son, adopted after being found in Seoul near an orphanage.
A neighbor surprised by joy.
Photo from a friend with permission
Sticks and stones may break my bones but words may hurt forever.
Howling monkeys are speaking for the neighbors in the animal kingdom.
Image from postcard, photographer unknown.
Our neighbors love one another and marry. But marriages look so different today.
This is my father-in-law dressed in his infantry uniform, ready for the orders to mount horses and meet Hitlers tanks. The Netherlands surrendered before the order.
Had that not happened, there would be no little Jack and Sylvia, and none of my children.
Jack, my husband, with his sister.
This little neighbor has 19 siblings and when she sees her friend preaching in church she runs to greet him.
Going to the principal's office. Of all the punishments I received in Elementary School, that was the one I most feared.
Sometimes we fear our neighbors.
A Christmas card embellished with sea glass from Sea Glass National Park in California.
Many neighbors suffer from opioid addiction. In memory of many neighbors.
**these are empty capsules
Photo from the book “Fragile” with photographs by Howard G. Buffett.
Wrapped with fabric.
Original image from the book Rewind : Forty Years of Design and Advertising by the British Design Art Direction.
Upgraded to represent my husbands favorite local brew.
Mailboxes for the LGBTQ+ community. You are our neighbors, and we need to love you and communicate with compassion.
On Monday, May 9, 2022, 45 men from Handlon Correctional Facility received their Bachelors degree from Calvin College, while another 31 men were awarded associates degrees during an event dubbed by the Detroit Free Press as “a first of its kind in modern history”.
“Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that.”
Martin Luther King Jr.
Could this have been how sweet and lovable Stalin was at a young age?
Image from the book Rewind : Forty Years of Design and Advertising by the British Design Art Direction.
Stalin with a smashed tomato. Some neighbors are hard to love. I put a ball on his nose thinking he should have been a clown.
Little boy to his left is how I think his mother may have seen him when he was a child.
Image from the book Rewind : Forty Years of Design and Advertising by the British Design Art Direction.
Lindy Morelli -Born a twin, but blind.
The mother took the sister and left her to the state. At the age of 4 she entered an institution for the blind in Pennsylvania. She learned brail, she spent her time in the library. As an adult she has traveled the world, served the needs of the poor, the homeless, and especially those unjustly incarcerated.
She made this heart as a gift for me. She is a loving neighbor.
I have surrounded myself with color and found myself lifted out of depression.
Van Gogh has been my favorite artist since high school. I loved his loose style, his determination, and we shared a weakness for mental illness.
This image was a poke at Prince Charles, voted the Boy Most Likely to Succeed, Cambridge Class of 1967.
Image from the book Rewind : Forty Years of Design and Advertising by the British Design Art Direction.
A neighbor asked me to make an angel to hold scripture cards. She worked for Zondervan's. I was told my payment would be 4% of the wholesale price. I think it was a miracle. This angel paid for one of my children’s entire college education.
I found this version at a thrift store for 58¢. What a bargain.
Will we find our neighbors in distant galaxies?
Inspired by images from James Webb telescope
30% of all our fruit and vegetables need pollinators. Protect our neighbors the bees.
Photo from the book “Fragile” with photographs by Howard G. Buffett.
Enhanced with tar paper, found wood, and string.
The harvest had failed, and this woman had to send her children to a village far from home. She felt trapped.
Artwork from the book “A Splash Of Red: The Life and Art of Horace Pippin”
Illustrated by Caldecott winner Melissa Sweet
I couldn’t resist enhancing this sweet drawing.
Even when we love our neighbor, we sometimes need to stand on guard.
Some of our neighbors are pets, and show us such affection and loyalty.
Vaccines protect you and your neighbors.
I like the word "Founders" so I saved the bottle caps and thought about the founders of organizations and nonprofits who show love to our neighbors.
Photo from the book “Fragile” with photographs by Howard G. Buffett.
He is sleeping on a World Food sack.
A house of color brings Carol joy.
Photo from the book “Fragile” with photographs by Howard G. Buffett.
Enhanced with grains of rice.
Some of our neighbors must work very hard for all of us to have food to eat.
Photo from the book In The Company of Women edited by Grace Bonney
This woman decided never to marry, and became a potter in Brooklyn. She said she feels like a princess in her studio with heat, AC, and running water. I gave her a princess crown and floral background.
Photo from the book “Fragile” with photographs by Howard G. Buffett.
Enhanced with tar paper & cardboard
This represents bipolar illness. I am not a stranger to that. My friend who suffered greatly gave me this pin to represent our bond, but later ended her life.
Photo from the book In The Company of Women edited by Grace Bonney.
Her dream was to have her own home and her own business. She got her own business, an old hardware store in Brooklyn. It was fun to enhance her photo with hardware.
When the song of the angels is stilled,
When the star in the sky is gone,
When the kings and the princes are home,
When the shepherds are back with their flocks,
The work of Christmas begins:
To find the lost,
To heal the broken,
To feed the hungry,
To release the prisoner,
To rebuild the nations,
To bring peace among people,
To make music in the heart.
-Howard Thurman
Paper doll found in The Encyclopedia of Collectibles by Time-Life Books.
The little girl was in her underwear and I had fun dressing her and making her legs dance with brass brads.
September 11, 1990.... straight line winds destroyed our beautiful trees. Our neighbors helped us and I learned to love gardening.
Self portrait of the artist.
Paint on pants.
Materials from the artist’s home studio.
My maiden name was Kok.
We wanted it to be pronounced like Coke. Dad was definitely riding the Cola company’s coat tails. They never complained. My father was in public office for 16 years… “Things go better with Kok”.
Portrait of the artist by Adrienne Ray Photography
My mother and I both loved to wear black. That’s my mother in the center of her class picture.
Books extend our understanding of our neighbors.
A collage of two powerful forces.
Image from ArtPrize 2021 entry “Guardians of Sacred Space” by Florencia Clement de Grandprey.
Face cutout, background enhanced with photo from The Encyclopedia of Collectibles with added beads.
Photo from the book “Fragile” with photographs by Howard G. Buffett.
Metal window frame added
When I see this face peering through the window, I wonder if my neighbor is looking at me? Is she shocked by what she sees?
Photo by Phil Borges for Amnesty International in book Enduring Spirit
Enhanced with paint and beads.
I wanted a house to represent my husbands family of 8. No running water, outhouse, wood stove, 6 kids in the attic, what more do you want?
Jack was the resident storyteller in the attic to his 5 younger siblings.
Image from Idea-ology by Tim Holtz
Sometimes I wonder, with all the trouble in the world, who of our neighbors will be the last ones standing?
Image from Idea-ology by Tim Holtz
My grandson holds a sweet dog, and is now the age of the young boy next to him who holds an automatic rifle. Such a contract between neighbors.
Photo from the book “Fragile” with photographs by Howard G. Buffett.
My grandson holds a sweet dog, and is now the age of the young boy next to him who holds an automatic rifle. Such a contrast between neighbors.
Collage with objects pulled from one of my many boxes of this and that.
You are my neighbor, and together we have been broken and need compassion to mend and heal.
American Gothic by Grant Wood
Classic neighbors of the art world.
This was the artist’s sister-in-law.
American Gothic by Grant Wood
Classic neighbors of the art world.
This was the artist’s dentist.
For better or for worse, we must love our neighbors.
My neighbor Norma is a beautiful gardener. I thought of her when I painted this.
Warning to all neighbors: when you climb a ladder make sure it’s leading to the top that you want to reach.
At Christmas when our family got together, everyone made houses. This is a piece by Amy Roeda Borst.
We used to say a woman’s work is never done, but now we say work is never done.
Image from Idea-ology by Tim Holtz
In ninth grade a teacher of mine in front of the entire class criticized my artwork. His words were “if Carol had even one millionth of a talent when it came to art that would be an accomplishment for her”.
Those words hurt. However, I have learned, it is important to live a creative life no matter how small the gift.
Dear neighbors, how will we show compassion when we have contaminated our water?
“Water water everywhere and not a drop to drink”
Photo from the book “Fragile” with photographs by Howard G. Buffett.
Enhanced with paint
The Seven Deadly Sins are like a mousetrap.
To take a neighbor who is a famous artist and try to paint like them is fun and humbling.
Inspired by Paul Klee
A suitor gone a-courting.
Image from Idea-ology by Tim Holtz
According to FINCA, over 1 billion people around the world survive on $2.50 a day, or less. These coins add up to $2.50
It got me to thinking, should we change the faces from time to time on our coins to remind us of those who have lived lives of compassion.
Remember all the neighbors in the animal world, on the earth, sea, and sky.
Inside or outside, every neighbor needs flowers.
Photo from the book “Fragile” with photographs by Howard G. Buffett.
Added tar paper & wood pieces
These neighbors could have limited opportunities in their futures.
Men protect women. Women protect ourselves.
Men protect women. Women protect ourselves. Who is really protecting the children?
Every year more than 3,500 children and teens are shot and killed 15,000 injured. Firearms are the leading cause of death for children and teens.
The artist Friedensreich Hundertwasser inspired this house and peeking from the windows are women who attend my church.
Some beautiful women have been heard to say “beauty is a burden”
The house may be abandoned but the trees still grow.
Photo from the book In The Company of Women: Inspiration and Advice from over 100 Makers, Artists, and Entrepreneurs edited by Grace Bonney
My dear neighbor, I knew you when you were 5. And I knew you when you ended your life.
Suicide and Crisis Lifeline: Dial 988
Photo from the book “Fragile” with photographs by Howard G. Buffett.
What does my faraway neighbor see when she looks in my window? Does she see how it can be cool inside in the hot weather? Does she see all the food in my refrigerator?
What a joy to watch our neighbors transform.
Photo from the book “Fragile” with photographs by Howard G. Buffett.
Unaltered
Beautiful neighbors in fragile circumstances.
I am amazed at how in a British mystery after something terrible happens, a policeman offers a cuppa to a grieving spouse. If only a cuppa could bring such solace.
Photo courtesy of Esther
Watching my neighbors through the window always brought me joy when we lived in the city.
Photo from the book “Fragile” with photographs by Howard G. Buffett.
This neighbor is a farmer and mother, working hard to keep her family safe.
Neighbors dancing in the joy of trees.
Covid shut down many things that were important to neighbors, and when things reopened we wondered where the neighbors went.
Rebecca Deng moved to Holland, Michigan when she was 15 and straight out of the Kakuma Refugee Camp in northern Kenya. She had lived there for the previous eight years, after fleeing southern Sudan at age six with her uncles and aunts and cousins in the Bor Massacre of 1991.
Rebecca married my husband‘s cousin Dan ROEDA! Now Rebecca is more than a neighbor, she is family.