Featured Artist Doreen Kassell

Enjoy the delightful polymer clay work of Doreen Kassel, and visit her website to see more from this successful artist.

 

 

I have always felt fortunate to be an artist. No matter what else is going on in my life I’m always an artist. I can reinvent myself if I want or need to.

 

 

My professional life has ranged from careers in illustration to textile design to my current work, designing sculpture, ornaments and other decorative items out of polymer.

 

 

I’ve found a community of other artists who love the versatility of this material and I teach workshops focusing on my special use of polymer. I’m currently selling my work at high end retail shows, my work is in galleries across the country, including my Diva, Maestro and Pagliacci, sold in the Metropolitan Opera store, and I sell online.

 

 

I have a very full teaching schedule. My workshops have taken me to many different cities in the United States. In 2013 I’ll be teaching all over the US and internationally, in Europe, which I’m very excited about.

 

I love making my ornaments, sculpture and custom animals. I try hard to find the quirks and uniqueness when I’m designing a creature. I know one is finished when I look at him (or her) and he makes me smile.

 

My work is evolving and I’m exploring the limits of the materials I use: a round glass or paper sphere as an armature, wire and polymer. I’m having fun pushing the limits of recognizable animals and characters, capturing their ‘essence’ and using wire to exaggerate the length of their legs and necks. The roundness of the armature just adds to the whimsy. If I can achieve some elegance and humor in my pieces then I’m very happy.

 

Right now I’m working on a menagerie of spindly leg creatures that I call Spindle Safari. A Noah’s Ark project is underway. I’m also working on an exciting group of Artist figures, where I do a stylized 3D portrait of a recognizable artist and paint his or her clothes and face in the style of that artist.

 

My inspiration comes at me from everywhere. Nature, history, vintage toys, books, other artists; William Holbrook Beard, Fernando Botero, Maurice Sendak. I love what I do, being an artist is a life that I am always grateful for.