Hello, I’m Cass. I’m an artist living in southern Appalachia. Welcome to my art club in the mountains. I make shimmering, hue-shifting, one-of-a-kind block prints. They’re hand-carved by knife and hand-pulled from unique treated papers.
I also make drawings and paintings. I’ve been drawing from nature ever since my elementary school librarian helped me find this book with rabbits on the cover.
I make art to celebrate the majesty of the natural world and to elevate everyday objects of power. I sign my work as BLOOMS. It’s a little prayer and an old trail name.
I live in the Ridge and Valley eco-region of Appalachia, cradled by the Blue Ridge Mountains and the Cumberland Plateau. Ridge lines include limestone, dolomite, shale, siltstone, mudstone and marble. Springs and caves are plentiful, and forests cover half of the region.
When I’m not making art, you can find me on a hiking trail. The Great Smoky Mountains are my home range.
🪶 I have seen 322 species of birds in the ABA region of North America. I’m a confirmed millennial birder. I’ve got a bird list spreadsheet.
🎨 I’ve got a master’s education in creative art therapy and years of training in studio art therapy. My first degree is in geography, which makes me a wayward cartographer.
🏛️ Museums feel like home to me. I worked in museum collections and curation, and also facilitated community art therapy programs inside museum studios.
Every block print begins as a sketch. When the image is ready to be worked, I transfer the graphite drawing to a ready-cut linoblock like this one. I rub the image onto the surface, and then fill in key shapes with sharpie marker.
I carve the image with knives. Then I roll out ink on top of a sheet of glass, and use my hand roller to disperse ink along the surface of the block.
Paper is laid carefully on top of the block, and I press ink into the surface of the paper with a brayer and a wooden spoon. After some time and elbow grease, I pull the print.