Artist C.M. Kakassy
C.M. Kakassy
I came to the United States from France with my parents in 1938, and although I was raised in an academic and artistic environment, my interest in creating art did not manifest itself until the 1950s. Those early influences led me to enroll in the North Shore Art League in Winetka, Illinois where I studied with Rudolf Penn, Abbot Pattison and Gordon Simon.
After moving to Gastonia, N.C. in 1966, I continued my studies at Gaston College with Frank Creech, Dexter Benedict and Pam Norcross. Spirit Square in Charlotte offered many opportunities for growth and development and exhibitions in galleries and museums throughout the Carolinas have afforded exposure for my work.
My original interest was in sculpture, but I have found 3-dimensional concepts readily applicable to printmaking and works of and on paper.
Though ideas are usually generated by my reaction to objects in the immediate environment, I prefer images that are somewhat oblique and not easily explained rather than those which replicate, record or inform. I often choose to utilize the information gleaned from the physical world in order to de-construct it from its normal visual context, then to reconstruct it to a new, unrelated image.
Process and the textural and tonal qualities of material play a large part in the development of concepts. Though I have found printmaking to be my most effective medium, often the combination of materials will guide the evolution of an idea or inspire a totally new direction.
I aspire to create vibrant and provocative images that offer a wide range of interpretations—images that challenge, intrigue, and visually stimulate a response to the work from the viewer’s own frame of reference.
My objective is to always push the experimental edge.
