Art began with a handprint on a wall, and thus the development of telling stories through visual dialogue began. Recently, my sculptural works of representational forms explore the narrative and storytelling. Using glass as a material to speak of my concepts, I have become the storyteller - of an individual’s economic and social positioning as well as their gender role in society. I engage the audience and challenge the viewer with contemporary topics of the sociological aspects of the working-class and the tools of their blue-collar labor. My work is dynamic and open-ended, allowing the audience to think beyond the physical object, evoking a sense of empathy from within the viewer. Through my anthropomorphic compositions, I challenge the observer to feel a human psychology, experience, or a memory. Using mixed media and glass; I have the ability to express the diversity and complexity of the human existence - of strength and fragility, beauty and pain. Glass displays ghostly reminiscences, representing a personal history or memory left behind. It can also portray a lack of memory, representing the invisibility of an uncomfortable emotion. Glass becomes a window for the viewer to explore what might otherwise never be seen.
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Cassandra Straubing
- Cassandra Straubing, 2014
He had a family to support; but when the housing crisis hit hard, his pants and belt hung unattended, awaiting the economy to pick up again - 2014 Detail of image to right
30 x 18 x 4” Cast glass and found objects Photo by Elizabeth Torrence