The Queen of Caulk

Craft & Design
The Queen of Caulk

Seated on the Aar River, Solothurn calls itself Switzerland’s most beautiful baroque city. So naturally, when multitalented California artist Tramaine de Senna was offered a residency there, she was inspired to create works that are a twisted tribute to this elaborate style.

In her studio overlooking the Aar, de Senna buttoned up her lab coat, donned her latex gloves and face mask, and spent the next three full months clocking about 800 hours working on her “I Love Caulk Frosting” series. Duality and reappropriation of mundane materials are central themes in much of de Senna’s work, and industrial caulk fits both bills, visually resembling tasty sugar frosting but most often toxic in content. The 16 total works range in size from a triptych titled Santa Claus, Schmutzli and Satan totaling roughly 9′ tall by 6′ wide (which took 216 ounces of caulk), to nine small squares, like Snow Queen, measuring about 7″ by 7″.

De Senna’s process was straightforward but laborious. She began by drafting traditional baroque patterns on transparent film, then infusing them with benign images ranging from pretzels to pine trees, randomly interspersed with unexpected dark counterparts like skulls, mudflap girls, and exploding-head squirrels. Starting with canvases coated with a layer of gesso topped with a layer of caulk, she projected the patterns onto the canvases, then painstakingly caulked the designs in place with a manual caulking gun.

She used silicone for most pieces, preferring its flexiblity after hardening and easy cleanup. She used painted acrylic caulk for Laudrée Royale, since green caulk is hard to find, and for Swiss Milk Chocolate Delight because acrylic brown looked more “chocolatey.” Who knew caulk came in so many flavors?

Check out this video de Senna made of her process:

YouTube player

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8 thoughts on “The Queen of Caulk

  1. An Artist with Caulk - Bull in a China Shop says:

    […] She used silicone for most pieces, preferring its flexiblity after hardening and easy cleanup. She used painted acrylic caulk for Laudrée Royale, since green caulk is hard to find, and for Swiss Milk Chocolate Delight because acrylic brown looked more “chocolatey.” Who knew caulk came in so many flavors?~Makezine Blog […]

  2. A Caulky Artist - Bull in a China Shop says:

    […] She used silicone for most pieces, preferring its flexiblity after hardening and easy cleanup. She used painted acrylic caulk for Laudrée Royale, since green caulk is hard to find, and for Swiss Milk Chocolate Delight because acrylic brown looked more “chocolatey.” Who knew caulk came in so many flavors?~Makezine Blog […]

  3. JAmes (@_JAmesH_) says:

    Wow, she can really work that caulk. She’s like the master caulkmaster!!

  4. Brian says:

    Thank you for that comment – I cannot stop laughing!!!

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I'm a word nerd who loves to geek out on how emerging technology affects the lexicon. I was an editor on the first 40 volumes of MAKE, and I love shining light on the incredible makers in our community. In particular, covering art is my passion — after all, art is the first thing most of us ever made. When not fawning over perfect word choices, I can be found on the nearest mountain, looking for untouched powder fields and ideal alpine lakes.

Contact me at snowgoli@gmail.com or via @snowgoli.

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