BIO: Caroline Estes is an Atlanta-based painter, poet, and ethnographer whose work bridges storytelling, public history, and vibrant abstraction. Using palette-knife techniques and saturated color, she explores memory, belonging, and transformation — themes shaped by a decade of guiding bicycle tours along the Atlanta BeltLine and witnessing the city’s evolving mural landscape.
Estes earned both her B.S. and M.A. from Arizona State University, with a focus on sociology, communication, and disability justice. Her interdisciplinary background informs her approach to public art, where listening and community engagement are as essential as the finished piece.
Her paintings — often described as “rainbows in motion” — have recently transitioned from studio work to large-scale proposals, including Memory in Motion for the Atlanta BeltLine and Refracted Currents for the Spruill Center for the Arts’ AMPLIFY program. Estes’s work has been featured in local exhibitions and integrated into community arts initiatives that honor the intersections of personal healing and collective memory.
Rooted in the South yet informed by national dialogues on belonging and access, Estes views public art as cultural infrastructure; a means to foster a sense of belonging and spark reflection in everyday spaces.