Delicate Crochet Art by Caitlin McCormack Explores Mental Health, Grief, and Life’s Deeper Meaning

Caitlin McCormack creates powerful crochet sculptures that explore the effects of climate change and human disconnection from nature. She is best known for her skeletal animals and fantasy-like plants, which imagine a future Earth damaged by environmental disasters. The delicate shapes of baby birds and mammals made from yarn serve as a warning about our fragile relationship with nature and how much worse it could get if we continue to ignore it.

Using handmade crochet—a craft often linked to comfort and home life—McCormack shares deeper emotions like grief, fear, and nostalgia. Her artwork combines bundles of stones and old objects wrapped in lace with skeletal creatures and strange plant forms, creating a mix of beauty and unease. Her pieces highlight the urgent need for environmental awareness, while also touching on mental health and the things we often overlook in everyday life.

Caitlin McCormack’s new art series, There You Will Find the Stone, is now on view at Harman Projects. One of the highlights is a mysterious blue wall sculpture called “Earth Before Eyeballs Existed,” which holds small crocheted bundles of found objects. The piece uses a mix of cool, eerie color and delicate handmade work to honor tiny items we often ignore or throw away.

The titles of her sculptures reveal deeper emotions, often touching on fear, grief, and emotional overload. For example, a group of works called They Come Back But They’re Never the Same and others like “Don’t Let the Party Die” speak to the feeling of losing control. In “You Picked the Wrong One,” a haunting nest of skeletal baby birds brings out a sense of warning and danger.

McCormack says her recent artwork is inspired by personal loss, illness, and her own health challenges. These experiences made her rethink her beliefs about life, death, and meaning. In her words, the sculptures reflect “grief, loss, and an obsessive search for meaning.” Her work shows how art can be a powerful tool for emotional healing and mental health, turning pain into something thoughtful and visually stunning.

There You Will Find the Stone runs from July 12 to August 2 in New York City. Find more on the artist’s website and Instagram.