Born 1978, in Massachusetts, Caitlin Hurd grew up in Salem and the suburbs north of Boston. In 2000, she received a BFA in furniture design from The Minneapolis College of Art and Design. She went on to lead school-age children in the creation of public murals for their communities. In 2006, she graduated with an MFA in painting from The New York Academy of Art. In 2017 Hurd founded the Artists Off Grid Residency program. She is also the founder of Spark Portraits, where she paints commissioned oil portraits from photographs and life. Currently she lives and works in Western MA. Hurd’s artwork has been the subject of numerous solo and major group exhibitions in New York City, St Barths, and California, as well as prestigious private and corporate collections, including Howard Tullman and Dasha Zhukova.