The Object Neon Glass Artist Caroline LaCava Didn’t Know She’d Need
The New York–based maker shares why a multitool from a trip to Yellowstone as a kid holds lessons she still applies today.
The New York–based maker shares why a multitool from a trip to Yellowstone as a kid holds lessons she still applies today.
When I was twelve, my mom and her best friend decided to take my brother and me and the friend’s four kids on a road trip. We piled into a rental Suburban with six kids and two art moms and drove from our hometown in Long Island, New York, all the way to Yellowstone National Park to camp for a week. We stopped at an outdoors store in Gardiner, Montana, near the park entrance, and my mom agreed to buy me this pink multitool key chain with my name on it. It has a file, a ruler, a little knife, a bottle opener, and scissors.
I remember using it while we were camping, and I’ve kept it for the last sixteen years because that trip was very formative for me. Coming from Long Island, I had seen mountains before, but nothing like Yellowstone. It was way outside my comfort zone as a middle schooler, and I remember going on a twelve-mile hike up a mountain and complaining the whole way. When I got to the top, I realized the complaining didn’t help me and actually held me back as I watched other people pass me by. It reminds me of how I approach my glassmaking today—having a reaction when something breaks in the hot shop isn’t going to help me. What’s done is done, broken glass is not sealing back up, and it’s important to just keep moving.
My Yellowstone trip taught me there are always going to be obstacles, but that usually means there’s something new to learn and discover. Especially when it comes to being an artist—there isn’t one set-in-stone path. I’ve had so many jobs both in and outside the art world, like being an art handler at the Whitney, producing neon signs, teaching glassmaking, and tending bar. All the little tools on the key chain remind me of those jobs, which have nourished my art practice in ways I wouldn’t have expected. There’s no "right" way to approach art making, and I’ve learned that the most important thing is to let myself be inspired by my surroundings and to see where that takes me.
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