Efflorescence

Author/Artist Name

Cassandra CarrollFollow

Files

Academic Level at Time of Creation

Senior

Date of Creation

Spring 4-15-2022

Artist Statement

Curiosity is an innate human drive that is often lost in childhood, but easy to find if one looks. I find a strange beauty in examining the broken wings of a dying butterfly. Within my work I hone in on these beautiful moments, and have found textiles to be the most diverse medium to show what I see. Within textiles, I’m able to emphasize the glimmer with glitter and the soft textures with felt and silks. When taking a road trip in Kentucky, we often pass by hills that’ve been blown to pieces, exposing the layers of rocks and opening opportunities for new growth within them. This growth is glamorized, but the slow decay of those rock forms and the fossils within is often ignored. Mistletoe feeds off of a tree like a parasite, yet these blemishes and natural diseases are admired. While negative at first glance, it consistently reveals hidden value and beauty upon closer examination.

This process of transformation within the natural world inspires me to create work. I use imagery like bugs and fungi to show they are as beautiful as they are necessary. By using a textile medium when using this imagery, I create a relationship between decay. It’s important that textiles degrade the same way. The transformation from growth to decay is part of a beautiful bigger cycle.

This balance of growth and decay and how nature creates an environment that causes people to closely examine their surroundings. I spark the viewer's interest by using vibrant colors and eye-catching material to depict macabre imagery. Disease and parasites are heavily associated with my consistent theme of growth and decay, as it is a growth that causes decay– like many other diseases. All too often, people tend to go about their days on autopilot ignoring much of the world around them. My goal is to encapsulate the viewer in an environment and push them to comprehend new subjects and perspectives by bringing attention to the world around them.
Stay curious and observe the beauty of our world that has always been there.

Advisor/Mentor

Sarah Martin; Jeanne Beaver; Heidi Ortega; Todd Herzberg; Timothy Martin

Description

All of the works displayed used various Textiles and textile forms including but not limited to, upholstery, sewing, wet felting, needle felting, and embroidery.
The process of transformation within the natural world inspires me to create work. I use imagery like bugs and fungi to show they are as beautiful as they are necessary. By using a textile medium when using this imagery, I create a relationship between decay. It’s important that textiles degrade the same way. The transformation from growth to decay is part of a beautiful bigger cycle. This event was also a fundraiser for the Endometriosis association and the works "Fatigue Couch; a Period Piece" and "Bleeding Through the Mask" are both dedicated to the struggles of Endometriosis.

Photo Credit

Poster Design Credit to :Jacob Zhao

Creative Commons License

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

Recommended Citation

Carroll, Cassandra, "Efflorescence" (2022). B.F.A. Practicum Exhibition (ART 498). 93.
https://digitalcommons.murraystate.edu/art498/93