Art Open House at NMCC March 2, 2018.
Edna Casman moved to Albuquerque in 1973. Originally a Fine Arts major in college, she was sidetracked from the art world when she changed her major field of study. After receiving her degree in Political Science, painting became a sideline to farming, family, and career responsibilities. Continued art education came by way of seminars, classes, and personal projects and in 1994, Casman settled down to serious full time painting. Her two dimensional work is primarily in acrylics. It has been evolving from loosely representational local and coastal scenes to pat-terned images and abstractions. Her latest work shows a remarkable freedom from naturalistic limitations. Art lovers familiar with her earlier landscapes will be amazed at the freedom she has discovered. A whole new vocabulary of mark mak-ing astonishes the eye. She has relegated subject matter to a place of vagueness while entering into a dance with the paint itself. This is romantic painting. Edna Casman paints from her business studio called Casman Paintings now located at 320-A Columbia Dr. SE, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87106.
Additionally, Casman is in collaboration with Chuck Dunbar making joint draw-ings and paintings since 2006. They have an extensive body of work, acrylic paint-ing as well as hundreds of drawings. Many of these can been seen at Charles Dunbar’s Page - 4art.com.
Artist Statement
To tell the truth, I always thought I’d be a painter one day. My drawing and painting efforts seem to have come naturally to me from an early age. What I didn’t foresee was how much soul searching and personal exploration it would take beyond mastering the technical aspects. Just applying paint to canvas makes its own magic and I do find this totally engaging in itself. But why any painting is worth the time spent on it is another issue. The challenge seems to be in creating a painting of substance, while playing with color and form perhaps too personal to be of immediate interest to others. Yet, if I admit to wanting a dialogue with the public, my job is to capture people's attention and amuse, please or affect them solely because of the visual impact. I expect to be at this work a long time.
