Artist Statement

I am an American acrylic and mixed media artist who creates highly textured substrates using layered or cradled panels, molding paste, collage, paint, and other objects and mediums. In my work, which is a fusion of my previous career as an illustrator and my current work as a fine artist, I combine a visual narrative with contemporary abstract and textural elements. My paintings range from multi-panel works to larger paintings.

It is a proven fact that everybody is shaped by their upbringing. Some will continue to adhere to the morals and limitations imposed on them by their parents and their religion, by the discipline they received, or the constraints or excesses of the economy. Some people eventually become aware of the limitations to their development and choose to modify or reject them completely upon reaching adulthood. I was raised Catholic, much like most of the families in my neighborhood during my childhood and thus I consider my upbringing to be average. But in retrospect, our household was, by far, the most rigid because religion dictated and controlled every aspect of our lives.  Since then, I have had a major shift in my viewpoint on organized religion and have reexamined how my overly strict religious upbringing has affected or constrained me.

Though I no longer consider myself to be a practicing Catholic, certain influences from Catholicism remain with me to this day, such as my love of pageantry, spirituality and symbolism. I have also broadened my beliefs to include a study of astrology and reincarnation as well as the development my clairsentient abilities, all of which now figure prominently in my work. Symbolism from ancient cultures and religions also play a role in my work, such as illuminated medieval manuscripts, ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics, and Etruscan iconography.  Through my paintings, I strive to convey the lively energy I currently experience, which I am attempting to address and more fully understand. It is an ongoing process and has become a cornerstone for all the work I now create.  With a focus on metaphor, spiritualism, and a connection to my higher self, the art I am now producing has largely shifted towards a more accurate portrayal of who I am today.

These forms of communication and decoration have now been combined with an artistic homage I pay to my mother and aunts and their knowledge and love of fabrics and sewing. Textiles were ever-present in our home. With very little discretionary income, my mother resorted to making our clothes, often from discarded clothes and rags peddled through our neighborhood by an elderly Italian ‘rag man.’ As the Rag Man pushed his cart up our road, Mom would go outside to meet him and comb through his cart of discarded clothes, and, because she could spot high-quality fabrics, she selected the best to wash and recut into clothes she sewed for us.

Many of the designs printed on the fabrics have become patterns in my work, such as in the “Portals” series. In order to create my current textural and complex work, I often marry those now-vintage fabric motifs with the iridescent colors reminiscent of the religious pageantry of my youth as well as those derived from ancient cultures.

Nancy White Cassidy