Cassi Heitmann is an emerging artist from Central Pennsylvania.  She recently graduated from Kutztown University of Pennsylvania with a Bachelor of Fine Arts, and an Art History Minor equivalent.  Her paintings are continually evolving and have been recognized in the institutions where she has studied.  Her work has been shown at the Art Association in Harrisburg, The Goggleworks in Reading, the Eckhaus Gallery in Kutztown, and the Philadelphia Sketch Club.

My work has become increasingly centered upon the way in which humans make visual models in order to explain abstract ideas.  Specifically, I have found a deep interest in the way in which the earth has been plotted and observed for thousands of years. From ancient maps to current satellite images, I have developed a visual vocabulary in painting that feeds from human intervention and cultivation of our physical earth.

Painting, as a medium, allows me to mimic the way a vast three dimensional object, such as the earth, is translated on a two dimensional surface. As I play the role of a surveyor of the canvas, my interest is in the nonsensical construction of a space where the earth meets its residents. The process involves drawing from images and patterns commonly found in geographical maps in order to visually verbalize rural, suburban, and metropolitan communities that thrive on the surface of the land.

Through formal abstract decisions, the paintings begin to conjure ideas about the flexile relationship between chaos and order, organic and geometric, subtlety and brashness. Ultimately the paintings are about these combating relationships, and in the end are not able to depict any actual location but rather conversely, a state of disorient. I allow the painting to cross back and forth over these lines through color choices and shape making until it reaches a satisfying point.

© 2008 Cassi Heitmann

EDUCATION

2008 BFA Kutztown University, Kutztown,PA

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2008 "Touching the Surface" Heitmann Atelier & Gallery, Lancaster, PA

2008 "Recent Paintings" Hardbean Cafe, Fleetwood, PA

2007 "You Are Here" Student Union Gallery, Kutztown University, Kutztown, PA

GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2009 "New Works", Artists of Lititz Gallery, Lititz, PA

2008 "80th Annual International Juried Exhibition", Art Association of Harrisburg, Harrisburg, PA

2008 "Kutztown University Senior Show", Goggleworks, Reading, PA

2008 "Small Oil Paintings", Philadelphia Sketch Club, Philadelphia, PA

2007 "Absolutely Abstract", Philadelphia Sketch Club, Philadelphia, PA

2007 "Handenbrain", Eckhaus Gallery, Kutztown, PA

2007 "Checkmate", Goggleworks, Reading, PA

2002 "Art School Annual Exhibition", Art Association of Harrisburg, Harrisburg, PA
         *Judges Choice Award for Youth*

2002 "Scholastic Art Exhibit", Hershey Public Library, Hershey, PA

AWARD

2004 "Excellence in Art", Central Dauphin High School, Harrisburg, PA