Next Up: Spring Pop-Up Art Market April 20th 11am-5pm

Marla Kassoff

Faces of Pandemic #2

Ceramic tile, sharpie paint markers, and oil paint

12" x 12"

Artist Statement:

Marla Dawn Kassoff is a mixed media artist, whose work includes a variety of media. She has created works using plaster gauze body casts which allow relief to her mixed media paintings. Marla reflects her life experiences in her artwork.

Since COVID-19, Marla has been working from home on her laptop as an art teacher as well as in other capacities. Both classroom and staff meetings have been held on Zoom. Marla also attends the Murray Hill Life Drawing class on Zoom. Seeing all the people in squares (reminiscent of the Brady Bunch) began the idea of doing portraits in squares. A friend gave her some leftover 12x12 inch ceramic tiles. And so the project began. Marla now has 8 tiles completed to date, 2 of which are being entered here. The total installation will include 15 ceramic tiles in 3 rows of 5, just like the squares on the screen during a Zoom meeting.

Bio:

Los Angeles-born artist, Marla Dawn Kassoff has lived in the Cleveland area since the age of three. She received a Bachelor's Degree from Cleveland State University with a personally designed major, "Human Expression" which included a variety of art courses. She completed the two-year foundation coursework at the Cleveland Institute of Art. She also studied at LaCoste School of the Arts in France in the summer of 1995. Marla received a Master's Degree in Art Education from Case Western Reserve University in 1998. She is a licensed Visual Art Teacher in the State of Ohio, and currently works as an Art Teacher K-8 at Northeast Ohio College Preparatory School, located in Tremont, Ohio.