Jewish Artists on Jewish Art Profile #4
Carol Hamoy
Carol Hamoy is a highly accomplished artist whose work focuses on women’s stories and women’s history, illuminating the connections between identity and tradition. Her artwork and installations have been presented in galleries and museums, both in the U.S. and internationally, since the 1970s. It was a true honor to speak with Carol and learn about her impressive body of work.
Carol’s art has direct roots in her immigrant family’s history in the garment industry. She creates articles of clothing and works with textiles, lace, beads, embroidery, old photographs, and other components in her artwork. Many of Carol’s installations are fabric sculptures in the form of women’s clothing with words from their life stories applied to the pieces through various methods. Carol specializes in giving voice to women who have been silenced by history and patriarchy. Her artwork involves an in-depth process of researching women’s lives and representing them both figuratively and literally, with their words or elements of their stories encompassing part of the work.
“Sabbath Bride,” Carol Hamoy
Carol is a New Yorker who attended the High School of Music and Art, now LaGuardia School of the Arts. Her education there nurtured her creative spirit and gave her a desire to be an artist.
“Many of the ‘kids’ from my class went on to work in either the music or art worlds, which is a comment on the value of a different kind of quality education for those children who think outside of the box. The experience/education of art opened my eyes to great wonders...It took quite a few years before I found my ‘voice’ and my work had focus, but the journey has been a wonderful one and I'm so pleased with myself for having the courage to make the trip.”
Carol learned how to sew at a young age by working with her relatives in the garment industry. The merging of those skills with her training in art and unique creative voice have resulted in a long, impactful artistic career.
“Sister Wives,” Carol Hamoy
Many of Carol’s installations aim to demonstrate the importance of Jewish women in history, such as “The Invisible Part of the Children of Israel” installation in which women from the Torah, so often overlooked, are embodied in the form of ethereal dresses hanging in a room alongside texts about each woman. The first artwork of Jewish content that Carol created was at the suggestion of her rabbi when Carol had her bat-mitzvah at 48 years old. She created art about her bat-mitzvah Torah portion regarding the biblical story of Dina.
Carol pays meticulous attention to detail in her artwork. For instance she uses the Jewish traditions of gematria and Kabbalah to infuse symbolic meaning in her work:
“I am influenced by Kabbalah and the interpretation/value/definition of numbers and their mystical quality. Often the dimensions and/or the amount of elements included in a work are based on the magical quantity of the number(s) I have used.”
“Ten Questions,” Carol Hamoy