Cassandra Schramm

Artist Statement

A little about Me:    

 My constant urge to develop my skills in many areas of art has led me to a wide variety of art-related fields. I have been an Art teacher for elementary, middle, as well as high school , but my passion has always been painting and decorative wall finishes. I have been painting my whole life, but I started painting murals 18 years ago and faux finishing 15 years ago. I was born and raised in Southern California, but my experiences in life have taken me down many paths. I am known by my close friends to be someone who just GOES.  I have lived on the west coast, the east coast, the south and in different parts of the world. I am also a proud Veteran of the USMC.   I feel that these experiences have given me a unique outlook on life and I am forever grateful.""“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime.”""-Mark Twain ..

A little about my Work: 

       My journey through art has been the most interesting, frustrating, and empowering part of my life. I have had many infatuations, but a forever-lingering subject matter of mine has been eyes. The EYE is an image that is so deeply rich in symbolism. EYES are said to be the windows to the soul. In Christianity it is a symbol of faith (representing the forever seeing eyes of God, the watchful caretaker), in Middle Eastern cultures it is a symbol of life and protection called the Hamsa . In India, the eye is known for the eye if Shiva, the possessor of all knowledge, which when opened will destroy anything it sees. Thus it is a symbol of knowledge which destroys evil and ignorance.
Though many cultures have their interpretations of what eyes mean, one thing can not be disputed, the eyes are an intriguing part of what it means to be human. 
          To maintain eye contact with another person, is a very vulnerable experience. This is a part of our everyday life, when we choose to let people in or keep them out. When we let down our guard and look into another’s eyes, we are opening up ourselves to them. Most of the time this becomes very intimidating, but at the same time, this is the point at which all of your pre-judgments about that person begin to fade . You start to see that person in a different light. You start to see them as a person, another human being that is part of the whole experience of life. 
Eyes are our personality, our emotions, our pain, our happiness, our consciousness, our soul. They are what unites us, a commonality of the human experience.

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