We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Lauren Casassa. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Lauren below.
Lauren , appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to hear the backstory behind a risk you’ve taken – whether big or small, walk us through what it was like and how it ultimately turned out.
Risk taking is something so essential to being an artist. “Take risks!!” I’ve heard this my entire art career. I believe it to be true, taking risks is valuable in many ways. It allows one to explore and create new ideas, or learn that maybe the risk you are taking is the wrong route. Either way, as a creative, you experience growth. Being an artist is such an overwhelming risk in itself. You never know when something is going to click, but the only way to find out is invest in the time, materials, and hurl your new ideas onto the canvas. It can get so draining, obsessing over which risk to take. What can I communicate to an audience that can be so personally vulnerable, but equally universal and accepted? No matter how many times people will tell you to take the risk, in a time where everyone is so deeply connected through the internet, it can be so jarring to do something new and wait to see how instagram and facebook followers react. It’s something I struggle with, and I feel absolutely silly in doing so.
In general, I’d say most of my work revolves around taking risks from the subject matter to the choice of saturated color and narrative. An unusual and notable risk happened last year when I had a show coming up. I had already finished work for the show, but there was nothing I was excited about sharing with an audience. I didn’t feel connected to anything I had and was craving to do something new. It was the beginning of spring and I was getting excited about going to Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour, in Tampa, Florida. I was shamelessly listening to Taylor Swift every day. People always say, “paint what you know,” and at this time, Taylor Swift was what was bringing me joy and understanding in my life. Two things that made me feel it was a risk. First, the fact that although, Swift has many, many followers, there seems to be a lot of people bothered by her. I worried people in the art world wouldn’t take my paintings seriously because Taylor was the subject. Secondly, I worried what her passionate fans would think of my portraits of her. “That looks nothing like her,” kept ringing in my ears. But I had learned from Taylor’s music, which has truly impacted my personal pieces, to create what you want, unapologetically. So I started painting her.
Absolutely nothing about being a Swiftie actually embarrassed me. It was the fear of being bullied. The fear of being seen differently, too girly, too emotional. As an artist I’ve learned that I cannot please everyone, and I will get absolutely nowhere worrying about pleasing others in my work. Yet, it’s still ingrained in me to second guess myself and the things I love because as an artist, critiques make a person grow. I have learned to sort out unworthy critiques I no longer care to understand. I’ve reminded myself again and again that my ideas matter, my work ethic is spectacular, and I have good ideas. So I must be careful not to let the negative feedback make me shrink myself.
I can’t imagine being Taylor Swift. For a woman on Taylor’s level of success to sing about similar feelings of negative feedback and fears of insecurity, is really saying something about our society at large. Taylor knows what she’s doing. She’s no longer accepting being simply “digestible” to appease the masses. I hate to say this but unfortunately a lot of the negativity and backlash I have seen has to do with the patriarchal ideals of our society. Taylor Swift is not begging for anyone to be a fan, so I don’t understand why anyone is so deeply annoyed seeing a woman succeed. I guess I relate with her, being the same age and being shocked to see how reactive people can be towards a woman making what she wants to create. Regardless, I had to get over my self doubt because I only had a few months before the show and I had to make some quick decisions. I allowed a little bit of confidence to fuel creating thirteen portraits of Taylor within a two month period. I worked every day, painting gouache on paper. The paintings are in my own whimsical style with vibrant saturated colors and shimmer. I enjoyed every minute challenging myself to capture her and in doing so I feel I captured a major moment in my own life.
In the end, the show was one of my most successful shows yet. A few years ago I would have felt it was too big of a risk to paint Taylor, which makes me so sad to think I was hiding any part of myself because some people could find it annoying. Being able to take risks is essential, but it is also a privilege and any artist who has the opportunity in life to break away from the norm and try something new is lucky. The process is what molds us. The outcome is always successful if you get a chance to reflect on what you feel in your life and conjure that feeling into your creativity.
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 full time painter living in Columbia, SC. I have a bachelors degree in fine arts from the University of South Carolina. Since graduating in 2017 my work has mainly been committed to large oil paintings on canvas. Though, after 2023 my work has broken off into another part, portraits of Taylor Swift. I take turns working between the two. I’m also dabbling in painting murals and look forward to my first mural outside my own home this summer. Painting is a process. My pieces will change a lot until I’m happy with them. It doesn’t bother me one bit. It just adds to the richness and texture in my mind.
I learned from a dear painting friend to “kill your darlings.” I care more about what’s best for the piece than I do about keeping something that I originally cherished if it no longer works with my new idea. Once I begin a painting, things change when I change the narrative. Perhaps I originally wanted to paint a unicorn self portrait and that eventually has me end up in a dark cave stuck in one place as a personified stalagmite. Sometimes painting can make you feel like there is no way out, but I love a compositional challenge. I can paint my way out of it through
motifs of personal narrative symbolic of my voice and stories, no matter the audience. The real beauty is the build. It is the layers of stories, what can be seen by the viewer and what is hidden still shows the texture of its scars.The figures stare at the viewer with mistrust, a feeling of heavy armor, bite the hand that feeds me energy. It’s a way for me to personify my feelings. Painting is the medium where I can communicate better than anywhere else. That’s where I get to be unapologetic.
When I’m not working on my large series of oil paintings, I am working on commissions, and paintings of Taylor Swift. This gives me time to keep creating without feeling burned out. Working from photographs and from life is a way for me to learn more about the way I like to paint. I’m always up for a challenge, even if that means painting a face multiple times before getting it right, I will keep going until it works out. This gives me structure, and time to breathe
My paintings are my comeback kids. I’m very proud of my work, they are a reflection of the years of taking risks and express the commitment I am capable of in life. I love painting larger than life, I want each piece to live up to its potential and to own the space it’s in. Over the years I have found that there is space for doing exactly what you want, as long as you commit yourself to putting in the work. I’ve come to love doing lectures because it challenges me to articulate what these paintings mean to me and my life. I hope it influences other artists to paint what they want to paint.
Is there mission driving your creative journey?
Im not at some particular level that I know the painter I am. I am pushing what I am doing to evolve, i am always curious to try new marks and techniques. Painting for me is like exploring and pretending as a child. It is the purest/ most innocent and healing coping mechanism that I know. A way I have always escaped boredom or the dark clouds of my memories. The goal is to paint as much as I can to create an entire world for viewers to step into, one in which i have only begun to scratch the surface. I want to do more with color theory and work more from life and learn as much as I can from artists I love. The goal is to surround myself with art and build a community while doing so.
You can always paint like others but when you learn how to paint like yourself, there’s no going back to the masters. The greatest masters of painting are those who paint like themselves, with the influence of each master they’ve encountered along the way. My goal is to keep expressing my feelings with paint, every chance I get, because it makes me feel purpose.
What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?
Since college I have found such a supportive online community, consisting of artists I look up to and people i have met through selling my work. It’s been a great experience finding people who believe in my paintings, and appreciate what I’m communicating. Viewers are able to connect with my work and see their own stories within the paint, and that is very special to me. I’ve been shocked how supportive artists I look up to have been. It’s rewarding when artists are supportive of each other and don’t treat the creative process as a competition. There’s no “right” way to paint, as I’ve found the more museums and galleries I visit, and through artists I meet. The most rewarding part is when you become your own, and have a community to share it with.
Becoming an artist has taught me to want things for myself, to seek out opportunity, and to work hard enough to deserve it. I’ve built up a confidence in myself that I never had before, and I’ve learned how much i desperately needed to have it in my life. Painting has allowed me to express big feelings, and I don’t have to shrink that for anyone. I choose the size, I choose how vibrant the colors are, and i bring my vision to life.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://Www.laurencasassa.com
- Instagram: House_bat, taylorswift_paintings
Image Credits
Myself