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Carol-Cassel-Baker.jpg

Photography:  Eric B. Schoch, Indianapolis

My work is an expression of imagined space created through color and spatial relationships.  When painting an interior, for instance, I do not consider the obvious chairs, walls, and floors to be the subject of the piece.  Rather, the elaborated relationships among these elements help comprise the content of the painting.  I prefer to work from life and compose simultaneously with drawing and color.  My color is often expressive rather than descriptive; it is used to constitute form and to create tension.

Each painting is a translation of the rhythms, harmonies and balances I perceive among real objects within a real environment.  By synthesizing those sensations I experienced directly from seeing the objects themselves, I hope to arrive at an original conception of pictorial space.  I want a space that is at once descriptive of tangible objects, and at the same time pictorially intangible.  This very personal space is created by my use of color and the compositional placement of images within the painting.  I want my art to embody two worlds - the human accessibility of one and the pure intensity of the other - realism and abstraction, objective and non-objective, known and unknown.

Regarding portraiture, human faces tell a story, though I’m mostly interested in the formal elements of the painting itself. It’s the interplay of color and light and composition I find intriguing. My personal challenge is to paint the flesh with sensual, descriptive color, capturing a likeness of the model, all the while presenting an energetic, balanced visual interaction among all the components of the painting.  I strive to convey a palpable human connection with the subject, as well as a formally interesting painting.

Pratt Institute 

M.F.A in Painting
Ford Foundation Grant for Painting

Herron School of Art-Indiana University

B.F.A in Painting
 

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