This local painter, printmaker, educator, and arts professional explores the spaces of connection and disconnection between people with her most recent exhibition, “Mediation.”
Check out her work!
Cassandra Schiffler is a painter, printmaker, educator, and arts professional in Boise, Idaho. She received a BA in Art and English from The College of Idaho, and completed 36 credits towards an MFA in Visual Art from Boise State University. She has followed her passion for the visual arts into work in art galleries, museums, frame shops, community printmaking studios, academic institutions and fine art appraisals.
She has exhibited in solo and group exhibitions throughout the US, and has participated in several printmaking portfolios. She was awarded a grant from the Idaho Commission on the Arts and an Artist-in-Residence through the City of Boise in 2013, was selected for the Idaho Triennial in 2013, and received a 2017 grant from the Alexa Rose Foundation to attend a residency at Anderson Ranch.
We had the opportunity to ask Cassandra a few questions about her career as an artist:
Where did it all start? When did you know you wanted to be an artist?
I’ve been an artist for as long as I can remember. Visual Arts have always interested me as an abstract and alternative way to understand and make sense of the world.
What inspired this recent body of work?These paintings investigate the visual interplay that happens at the edges between one thing and another. I’m interested in exploring these quiet and ambiguous spaces that occur at the borders between things: the horizon line between sky and Earth, the edges of architectural and built spaces, a painted line defining space, the boundaries between selves and others. These in between spaces sometimes appear clear and definite, sometimes gradual and blended, and sometimes they are visibly fraught with struggle. For me, this is a metaphor for the spaces of connection and disconnection between people, exploring our struggle to negotiate with others and to mediate how we come together or don’t come together.
How have our Idaho communities inspired you as an artist?
Our community in Idaho is very friendly, welcoming, and tenacious. This is a great place for creative people to thrive. We have a vibrant community, many outdoor opportunities, and access to many cultural institutions. There is no where I’d rather be.
What kind of challenges and opportunities have you experienced in recent months?
I’m pulled in many different directions between work as an arts professional, my personal artmaking, being a mother, maintaining relationships with friends and family, and finding time to do all the things. It’s always a struggle to balance everything in your life and to create the opportunities for things that you want to happen most. I feel very lucky to have had many doors open up recently, but I’m still figuring out which paths to take.
What’s next?
I have many paintings in progress that didn’t make it into the show, and I’m currently working on finishing them. I have some potential opportunities for upcoming shows locally, and an art gallery regionally that may be interested in representing my work, so I think this body of work will continue to evolve and be shown again.
