Cassidy Post

Artist Statement

My BFA work creates a space, emotionally and literally, to reflect on the many large and small changes that the COVID-19 pandemic brought about. My artwork looks at the pandemic not as a dark time, but as a natural cycle of life, a time for transitioning and growth.

Images of Wyoming insects, animals, and plants are printed on indigo-dyed cloth, creating a ‘changing room’ installation made with hanging curtains. The outside of the cloth room displays creatures in their beginning phases, while the interior of the room is filled with the creatures and plants fully transformed, representing the changes happening outside our bodies and inside our minds. A printed image of a giant cicada welcomes the viewer into space as they slip inside between its wings. The joyous hum of these beautiful insects in the summertime seems to sing the blessings of having spent a time growing in the dark. Each image on the outside of the installation is printed within a circular format, a ‘cycle,’ while the prints on the inside of the room break free from the circular boundary, symbolizing the release from confinement and isolation. Watercolor self-portrait paintings are hung alongside the changing room with repeating circular motifs, representing the cycles of emotion and seasons of self-growth and reflection I experienced from 2020. My artwork offers people a chance to find peace in nature, in uncertain times, and in their own cycles of life.