AREAS OF DISTINCTION

Sculptural Development Writing
For a doctoral dissertation, established a foundation for understanding the course of sculptural development, formulating the numerous artistic elements which may be found in a sculptural form and how each is acquired and expressed. This unique research is invaluable for artists, teachers, parents, and sociologists. The research details two different sculptural media-clay in the creation of solid forms, and wire in the creation of linear forms. Theories were based on observation of the complete creative process of over 2,000 sculptural forms.

The findings have been put into the book that focuses largely on clay. "From Mud Pie to Masterpiece: Children's Sculptural Development" is soon to be published. Reader-friendly with many illustrations, it explains what and how children create without adult instructions. Six stages of sculptural development are identified. In Stage 1, children create elementary non-shapes. They do not understand that matter can be manipulated into a personal statement. But once their hands dig into a pliable, moist, and thrilling piece of clay, or other malleable material, children begin their artistic journey. They pull clay apart, explore, model, take risks, and start to discover sculptural principles, one leading to another. In just a few sessions, their once anonymous forms become lively individual expressions bursting with artistic energy and imagination that belie what is possible. By Stage 6, without instruction, children are capable of creating the most inventive and original forms.

Included are lessons for each stage of development that emerged from what children create naturally. In this way, concerned adults have a guide to help children develop in their understanding of their three-dimensional world. This unique book is invaluable for artists, teachers, parents, art therapists, and anyone concerned with human development. It was presented at the November 2004 California Art Education Conference in Sacramento, California.

The Hebrew Bible in Great Art
Dr. Carasso has developed a course that teaches about the Hebrew Bible through masterworks on biblical themes. The course not only goes through the characters, the stories, and their contemporary meanings, but also relates how each artist conveys the story through the artistic elements. Thus, the class incorporates biblical as well as aesthetic learning. The course is often taught to community groups.

Member of Center for Jewish Art at Hebrew University, Jerusalem. Attended international conference on Jewish Art in Jerusalem in 1994 and 1996. Presented a paper entitled "Creation, Destruction, and Rebirth in the Bible" at the 1999 Conference. ArtScene

Pablo Picasso's Writings
For a Master's thesis wrote and translated, from Spanish and French, The Published Poems of Pablo Picasso, which is in the Special Collections of the Museum of Modern Art Library in New York City. Worked with William Lieberman, then the Director of Prints and Drawings of the Museum of Modern Art. Corresponded with Picasso's dealer, Daniel Kahnweiler, and many of Picasso's associates. The document is the first and only known compilation of Picasso's writings to be translated into English. It has been cited in bibliographies of many eminent books on Picasso. Currently, it is being put into book form. ArtScene