Interview with August Youth Artist Cassie Taber
One of our two Youth Artists of the Month is Cassie Taber, whose emotive and compelling pieces are on display throughout August.
In an interview with us, Cassie discusses what prompted her to pursue arts education, creative influences, what she’s learned in the preparing for her show, and more!
Cassie and Youth artist Meaghan Tanski will be having an opening on August 1oth from 6-8pm.
In your artist statement, I found it inspiring that you mention how the arts are beneficial to the mental health of youth. When did you first become interested in pursuing the arts and arts education?
I first became interested in pursuing the arts, specifically art education, during my junior year, as I had previously been going through a very rough patch with my mental health. I found that diving into the arts was something very beneficial to me. By pursuing a career in art education I hope to give students who also might be struggling the opportunity to use art as a tool to better their mental health.
Who and what have been your most significant creative influences?
It is hard for me to pinpoint just one person or thing that has creatively influenced me. Instead, I find that my work is often inspired by a collection of first-hand or observed experiences that I have gathered over time. For example, this year I created a body of work centering around one of the most basic, yet complex forms of human connection — love. When creating some of the pieces, I drew from personal experiences, however, with other works I pulled from the experiences of friends, family, and those around me. Love is an emotion unique to each person who experiences it, and to create a diverse body of work I felt the need to explore experiences that were not always my own.
One of your pieces depicts what appears to be a couple seated on a bus in a dynamic and moving scene — conveying a moment of both stillness and motion. What inspired you to create this piece? Does it have a title, and if so, what?
This piece, titled "Slower with You: A Quiet Moment in a Busy Place," is largely inspired by a feeling of peace that my partner has been able to bring me. Both of us are now college students with very busy lives, something I tried to convey with the collaged background of this piece. Nowadays, it is often that I begin to feel overwhelmed with all of the new changes happening in my life. My partner is a solace in all of it, and being around him quiets down the feeling of static that often occupies my brain. He brings me a sense of peace, a feeling that I tried to convey in this work.
If there is one takeaway you would like people to know when viewing your work, what is it and why?
One of the biggest goals with any of my pieces is to convey emotion. I want viewers of my work to walk away from a piece having felt something. Whether it be a still seascape that inspires a feeling of peace, or a portrait that demonstrates the strong connection between a couple, my end goal is just to have made the viewer FEEL.
How did you first learn about The Collaborative and what have you learned in the process of preparing for your opening?
I first learned about The Collaborative through my art teacher Adam Tracy, who has been extremely supportive of my work for the last two years, and has answered lots of my questions regarding my artist opening! One of the biggest things that I had to learn during this process was how to price pieces accordingly, and to understand the monetary value of my work.
