Murray State's Digital Commons

Collection Title

Portfolio

Author/Artist Name

Cassandra H. CarrollFollow

Files

Academic Level at Time of Creation

Junior

Date of Creation

Spring 4-27-2021

Artist Statement

There is something beautiful in the broken wings of a dying butterfly. Embedded within our scars are symbols of hardships and victories. Throughout life there are hardships, but there is often a beauty to the changes that occur as a result. These beautiful adaptations and transformations inspire a childlike curiosity in me that drives my work. My imagination likes to wander through the forest and the depths of the sea and use the curiosities I find there to explore pain and pleasure, growth and decay, and the visceral reaction they provoke.

I want to share the comfort that the truth brings me, and to inspire curiosity in the minds of those that don’t often question the world around them. I want to show people my human experience, and an artist I look up to, Kathe Kollwitz, does something similar in her own work. Her work focuses on figure drawing and addresses pain and death, yet empathy and comfort are still evident. My mediums are often seen as a women's craft and I purposefully include feminine aspects to it both aesthetically and literally. I also touch on subjects including birth and life and equally represent death and decay. In Ebony Patterson’s artist statement, another artist I look up to, she mentions her use of tampons in her work when alluding to femininity and how it has entered popular masculine Jamaican Culture. Some of my work has to do with the sexualization of the woman’s body.

My current focus’ are Drawing and Textiles. My latest textile work is based on the passing of time which encompasses the feeling of nostalgia. Whether the memory evoked brings the audience into a place of hardship or comfort. In my piece Taken Over, this can be seen. The premise of this piece was to make the audience feel the need to touch and learn. The moss and mushrooms are taking over the log cabin style quilting, which is abstracted as overgrowth on bricks. The use of oddly cut fabric forms and softly yet chaotically textured yarns used together sparks my curiosity. This is an example of how I want to make my work to interact with the audience. While it’s not currently possible, I would like my work to be literally interactive; to give the audience a chance to leave behind societal rules and explore the unconventional.

Advisor/Mentor

Sarah Martin

Description

The majority of the work is focused on growth and decay. Many of my pieces are mixed media. Rat Charm is a needlefelt necklace, and about the size of a real rat. Food Frenzy is a 8x8 tryptic drawn with color pencil. It mostly focuses on the sexualization's of the woman's body. Taken Over is a 20x20 fabric wall hanging with a push and pull between growth and decay. Beetle Ring is simply a 2x4 two finger ring made of Nickle, brass, and tigers eye. Transformative Swathe is a 10x15 print. Curiosities is a 18x24 watercolor and color pencil work. Self Portrait is an 18x24 inch color pencil and watercolor work. Tragedy is a 14x16 ink and color pencil work. Dead Fish is a 24x8x6 inch mixed media work, this is based off of a butterfly behavior called mudpuddling.

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.

Recommended Citation

Carroll, Cassandra H., "Portfolio" (2021). Professional Practices (ART 399). 105.
https://digitalcommons.murraystate.edu/art399/105