We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Cathy Weiss. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Cathy below.

Cathy, appreciate you joining us today. Did you always know you wanted to pursue a creative or artistic career? When did you first know?

I grew up with very strong women who didn’t take no for an answer. My mom made all my clothes growing up, she was very creative and artistic. My grandmother was also a colorful person. She was always singing, telling stories , had a restaurant and the first cooking show on TV. My father was a poet at heart and our home was filled with music, books, and artistic endeavors, all their friends were creatives. When I was about 9, my brother, who is 12 years older than me, had a girlfriend who was an artist and incredibly talented. The two of them would take me to look at art. She taught me to draw. Ever since then I wanted to be an artist. It just made sense. Later I found out my birth mother was an artist. That was how she met my birth father because she was studying at the Art Students League of New York. It’s both nurture and nature that I became an artist. It was always in me and then it was nurtured by my family.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I am a visual artist with a practice both inside and outside my studio. Inside my studio I make intricate woodcut print, and mixed media constructions and installations that are metaphors for the layers of our humanity. My work is underpinned by myths, truths and stories shared by women across cultures to issues we face in today’s world. Stories that speak to our humanity, stories that address issues that we have faced throughout history and continue to. Like in a Tel which consists of layers of civilizations holding ancient tales, each new block carries forth from the blocks before but something new is added. A portal of time, a place to access these stories. I mark my woodblock figures in the way we tattoo our bodies allowing my ideas to live on and continue into the next work. Transgenerational Epigenetic Inheritance, a form of memory that is passed down generationally informs my process. I integrate memory existing in our DNA, inherited from those who came before, and will live on in those who come after. The residencies I have been awarded in Spain, Morocco, Mexico, and India have informed my growth and the work I make. Elements of nature are integrated into each work both in context of addressing environmental issues as well as symbolism across time and place. Elements such as light, shadow and air play a part in the physical nature of the work transcending it into the metaphysical. I hope to begin conversations with my work. Outside the studio I am committed to my public and community projects as well as curating exhibitions.
I am the creator and director of the Mosaic Sun Project for the nonprofit Big Sunday. My husband and I create the beginning of each sun in my studio where we only mosaic the face then we bring the sun to a location where the community comes to tile the sun using their creativity. The only rule is that they have fun! As each sun is completed my husband and I bring the sun back to my studio, grout it and take it to a location in LA to be installed, shelters, health care facilities, the VA, women’s houses, transitional living facilities, schools, and many other nonprofits. The idea behind my project is bringing community together and offering beauty and joy to the locations where we install the suns. This project began many years ago as a once-a-year event and now it has grown to weekly at the Big Sunday headquarters as well as participating in special corporate events. It is a project that I am very proud of as it brings people together and brings joy to everyone.
A few public exhibitions/installations I have done are Seeds of Hope, a mural commission, Wallis House, Los Angeles; Love and Light at Craft Contemporary Museum in LA; Laurel Canyon, Chaparral Habitat: Native Flora and Fauna at LAX, Terminal 3; and From the Ground Up at Ontario Airport for the LA World Airports.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

I moved to NYC for grad school and during that time I had many jobs to support my practice. It was an exciting time where I met many artists and art world people, had exhibitions and was living the dream. I met my husband in NYC, he was working as a photographer, and we had an amazing loft in Brooklyn. I became pregnant with my first child and once he was born everything changed. We moved to Los Angeles because I wanted to be close to my family. My life was now different. I was a mom with no artist friends and no connections to the art world. To keep going with my passion and to have more income I was painting commissions for my mom who was a designer. I did a ceiling painting in a castle that then became the home of Johnny Depp. I also became an educator. Once my kids were a little bit older, I turned my focus back on my work. A friend suggested that I try out the Los Angeles Printmaking Society. It was a segue back into the art community. I immediately started working on the big National exhibition in 2009. I pulled in Bob Blackburn’s work and I met a lot of people. I worked really hard. I then found a space to open a gallery. We had LA Print Space for two years until they wanted to quadruple the rent. Life happens and I learned how much community means to me through my journey of being an educator and raising my children, being part of our local temple where I made many friends. It’s also how I became involved with Big Sunday!
As my grandmother would always say to me, “In just one little moment anything can happen!”

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

There are so many levels on what makes being an artist rewarding. In my practice I value the opportunity to think about and respond to what is going on both on a personal level as well as what is going on in the world. I am engaged and challenged to be better in every way. I love making work and being inspired by our universe and sharing that with others. I am motivated to make work that makes people think and feel and be part of a community where we give people an opportunity to be creative and to bring joy to others. I love meeting new people those that inspire me and those I can inspire. I think about the women whose shoulders I stand and those that will stand on mine, and I work to be worthy of that.

Contact Info:

• Website: http://www.cathyweissink.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cathyweiss/