Today we’d like to introduce you to Cassie Adams.
Hi Cassie, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
My path to embrace my calling as an artist has been a meandering one. However, for as long as I can remember I have wanted to create. I was the kid that had art themed birthday parties and liked listening to the audioguides my dad insisted on at museum exhibitions, the earliest one I remember was a Gauguin exhibit in DC, the colors so beautiful and vibrant. I majored in visual art at Duke and studied abroad at SACI, an art school in Florence. After graduation, I moved to Manhattan and got a job as an intern at a contemporary art gallery in Chelsea. At the time, the next step to “becoming” an artist was to get a masters, but I was not ready to jump back into grad school and after a chance encounter with a high-end interior designer, I took a job as her assistant and fell into a design career. I wouldn’t return to making art until I went back to school in 2010, attending Parsons for interior design, but it was just for fun as I was focused on starting my own residential design firm. Fast forward to the spring of 2021, I had my second child and was feeling burnt out from a lack of real creativity. I had dabbled here and there exploring my love of painting and collage, even turning many of those works into textile patterns, but that fall I felt a real pull, a calling you might say, back to my true love of making art. Now I share my time between my two passions, art and design. I still work as a designer and love creating beautiful spaces for my clients and am thrilled to have found a way to link my art with my design practice through a collection of textiles and wallcoverings using imagery taken directly from my artwork.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
I would describe my experience as a curvy road. Sometimes it feels like a slow going switchback up a mountain, but others it feels like a rush as you careen down the slope. As an artist the struggle of feeling “good enough” is quite real and sometimes it can be really hard to manage those feelings of doubt. On a daily basis I am jotting down new ideas that pop into my head and what I find most difficult is finding the time to do “all the things.” I have two small children and as any working mom will tell you, it’s a balancing act. Pair that with the constant need to be a “content creator” in addition to wearing all the hats of running multiple businesses, and I have to admit some days it feels like a lot. Finally moving into Little Mayview, the studio I designed and built in my backyard, has been such a boon! I do my best to stay true to my voice and if I need a little break, I ask my speaker to play ocean sounds and lay down on the floor of my light filled haven for a bit.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I specialize in creating colorful artwork and interiors aimed to bring joy and a sense of calm to the everyday. In both of these disciplines, I am known for my use of layering color and pattern and how my combinations are simultaneously vibrant yet soothing, which is not something you always get when using a bolder palette of colors. In my artwork, I am most proud of my compositional skills across such a wide variety of mediums. I can cover an entire canvas or balance a collage with just the right expanse of negative space. I truly enjoy working at both ends of the spectrum between super loose and super precise. I think what sets me apart is my ability to create on so many different planes while truly maintaining a feeling of connection, a thread that runs through them all.
Are there any books, apps, podcasts or blogs that help you do your best?
For work, this past spring I hired a wonderful art consultant, Cara Alford of Allegory Art Consulting, to help me get organized and set up systems for streamlining my workflow. She introduced me to the app Todoist and I find it super helpful for organizing and staying on top of deadlines. In my personal life I find just making time to sit and read is so helpful. I like physical books as they are a way to disconnect from all things technology related and immerse yourself in another world for awhile.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.cassieadamsdesigns.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cassieadamsdesigns/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cassieadamsdesigns
