Hi Casi,
thanks for agreeing to be interviewed!
I'd like to start by asking you about yourself and your activity as
an artist. Who is Casi Cline and what does Ephemerality Art
represent for her?
Well, I am a human like any other with complex thoughts and
emotions, though perhaps a little more anxious than most. If I were
an animal, I would be a frightened doe rabbit running from the beast
of time, grateful for my safe and glowing burrow with my warm buck
inside where I can forget for a time until I have to dip back into
the dark. Ok, goofy animal metaphors aside, I am a graphic designer
during the day and create art whenever I can. I am married to Steven
Cline, my favorite artist. I see myself as darkly enlightened, but
have been told I am innocent. Just another aspect of the infinite
list of opposites that I am, I suppose.
Ephemerality Art is an external transcript of the ideas and
thoughts swarming through my subconscious. I think it is important to
experience the subconscious minds of others. It lets you see from
other perspectives and helps you get a little closer to that
indefinable something at the center. So, Ephemerality Art is my
contribution. My tiny little piece of the equation. Even if I don’t
get there, maybe I can help someone else. The perfect metaphor would
be from the novel Mount Analogue by René Daumal. Each traveler
prepares the way for those who come behind.
However complex and intricate, your pieces possess a striking
elegance and show a perfect balance among elements as different as
harmonically integrated. Diverse entities coexist in a mysterious
universe whose depths are unfathomable. Encyclopedic illustrations of
pterodactyls soar over arcane messages about unexplained omens.
Geometries both of the flesh and of the mind are visited by moths and
rifles. Legions of circular shapes and decorative elements
reminiscent of the Victorian era meet and interweave to create
majestic systems. What are your favourite image sources?
My favorite kinds of materials are old books with interesting
patterns or diagrams. These can be scientific textbooks, manuals,
medical encyclopedias, etc. I look for books from the time period
before photography became the norm and hand drawings were mostly
used. I love shapes and lines, which is why old sheet music is also
one of my favorite sources. There is something especially magical
about searching through a pile of ephemera or a box of books at a
yard sale and finding images that resonate with you. I especially
love taking the kinds of drawings and diagrams that are solely
utilitarian in purpose, such as a machine blueprints and giving them
a violent rebirth as art.
When did you begin making collages and drawings with a view to a more
or less coherent project?
I started making collages late in 2013. However, to this day, I
don’t purposely create a certain style. I go into each piece with
no intention. Each piece is a reflection of my thoughts and state of
being when I am in the act of creating it. As I go through mental
epochs, the pieces evolve. For instance, I have increased my use of
color over time, and the types of patterns I draw go through stages.
However, my preference for certain materials lends a degree of
unintended coherence to my pieces.
To what extent is a collage the result of a predetermined sketch? Is
it more a matter of conscious spontaneity or of a well-defined plan?
When I start a piece, I usually have no idea about how I want the
finished piece to look. Exceptions would be if I were doing a custom
commission with specifications, which is very hard for me considering
I don’t usually plan, or if I found a special image while out
collecting materials. Normally, I try to keep the flow of work as
effortless as possible. I will start by picking my background: old
paper, music notes, book pages, or whatever I am feeling like. I make
sure to leave a blank area to draw in. Then I will go through my
materials and cut out whatever strikes me. Sometimes it is just
images I find and sometimes I also find bits of text I like. After I
have applied all of the paper pieces, I start to draw. This usually
takes me the longest. I don’t usually plan the drawing, either. I
have plenty of shapes I like to draw and sometimes I see something
new I like and draw my interpretation of it. For instance, I have
lately taken to the patterns in insect wings. Once I have a style
going, I just keep drawing until I have filled in as much of the
blank spot as feels right, usually all of it. I have a hard time
leaving empty space.
What were your earliest experiences with art?
As far as my personal art goes, though I did not know it at the
time, I have been practicing for my current pieces since I was a
child. I kept a journal, which, in addition to containing terrible
poetry, was also filled in every margin and available space with
small drawings and wild patterns. Even up through college, every
notebook I owned, instead of being filled with class notes, was
filled, inside and out, with shapes and patterns. I was discovering
favorite motifs then, which I still use now. My experience of the art
of others was mainly from art books. We didn’t go to museums very
often when I was growing up, but we did go to the library every week and check out
the maximum allowance. That was back when we still had library cards.
I also remember a large set of art books, which my uncle gave to me.
I would pore over beautiful and sometimes dark and frightening
pictures in the book. It was the terrible pictures that I couldn’t
tear my eyes away from. I remember a painting of hell I would go back
to again and again, and a picture of a tiger with its claws in a
man’s skin. The agony displayed in these images expressed feelings
I could neither identify or explain. My uncle was an artist, and I
often regret that he died before I could share my art with him.
What were your major inspirations along the path to developing your
own signature style?
My husband, Steven Cline, has inspired me through his
encouragement and the vast knowledge he has shared with me. I love
patterns, and whenever I see something that resonates with me, it
finds its way into my drawings. The Surrealists have inspired me, not
in a visual way, but in an ideological way. My greatest inspiration
is simply the world of books and paper I have always lived in. My art
is an expression of my subconscious and the things that fill it.
As a math teacher, do you feel your art and mathematics are in some
way connected?
I love math. It is an abstraction of patterns in the world around
us. As something I feel a connection with, it finds its way into my
art, sometimes subtly and sometimes overtly. I am no longer a math
teacher, but the math is still there, influencing me. In addition, I
do believe that there is a philosophical place of deep understanding
where all arts and sciences become on knowledge. Things are not so
separate and sharply delineated as they would seem. I see no
disconnect between science and art.
This is how you introduce your first novellette, Chimaera Obscura:
in this book "[...]we journey through a mysterious forest to
reach the top of a tall mountain, meeting others along the way who
are flighty, wise, beautiful, sinister, and cranky. But above all
else, Chimaera Obscura is a journey to find what one is." Where
did the idea of Chimaera Obscura come from?
Like most of what I do, Chimaera Obscura comes from the place of
deep uncertainty, constant questioning, dark anxiety, and hopeful
idealism that is my mind. We can never know what is true, and my mind
refuses to resolve on an arbitrary choice. Because of this, I am a
perfect split of opposite answers in stalemate. Chimaera Obscura is
an expression of the inner voice looking for truth. In the end of the
story, a solution of sorts is given, but it is just one possibility
of infinitely many.
Some of your artworks and poems have appeared on the surrealist
journal Peculiar Mormyrid. What is your personal notion of
"surrealism"? Why is surrealism important to you, whatever
form it takes?
Surrealism has been for me a refuge and a release. Surrealism has
helped me brush away the doubts that had kept me from doing art for
so long. Art to me now is a distillation of human thought rather than
an obscure talent guarded by a select few, and as such exists in
every human subconscious waiting to be tapped. In the words of
Lautreamont, “poetry should be made by all, not by one.” It has
always struck me how vast the universe is when each mind contains an
infinity of possibilities. Because of the philosophy of the movement,
I have discovered a world in which I can be myself ever more freely.
Before I found Surrealism, any odd idea would usually be dismissed or
find no hold. I had always been yearning for something, and, while
the yearning is still there, I now have a compass with which to
search. With a little practice the mind can see many marvelous things
in our very ordinary world.
Your recent experiments with sound poetry are particularly
fascinating in that they seem to evoke a primordial world where an
ancestral and almost magic language was spoken. These lulling albeit
slightly unsettling pieces reverberate with semantic units of primal
significance which take us back to the dawn of civilization. Are
these tracks part of a wider project?
I have no big plans at this point. I am excited to find a new
channel for artistic experimentation. But it all started the fateful
day that my encyclopedic husband introduced me to Kurt Schwitters!
“Rakete rinnzekete!” When I heard sound poetry, of which I was
embarrassingly ignorant, I was instantly inspired. I went around for
a couple of days just repeating Kurt Schwitters and then started
making my own sounds. I have always loved playing with the sounds of
words, but now I don’t have to be distracted by the meaning. I had
also been listening to industrial, gamelan, and experimental music,
so the sound poetry just fell in well with it to me. I find it
amazing how much you can do with household items, free audio
software, and an affordable microphone. As you can tell, I really am
a little excited.
Thanks again for your time!
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