For two months, Casebeer painted, collaged, and slept in her studio on Fifth Street in downtown Phoenix.
The space is small, but comfortable. It's easy to get lost in the piles of books, torn pages, oil sticks, and completed pieces that occupy almost every surface and wall. But it's even easier to miss the studio completely -- hiding behind the closed parlor doors in the space next to Jobot and yards away Lost Leaf.
Luckily, she's used to the noise. Plus, she says, she needed time to paint and collage herself to safety.
Casebeer goes by her last name (only her mom uses her first). The artist went to school for creative writing and started painting and collaging when she had a bad case of writer's block. "It's cheating, I know," she says about using words in her art instead of writing. "But I'm slowly working my way forward, and then backward again ... painting and writing are both in the future."
"Answers appear at the end
of the book." is her latest work, which she'll show tomorrow at Jones in Phoenix. She says the series is a blend of her two hobbies, and admitted total obsessions.
Casebeer shares her studio (and temporary living space) with Randal Wilson. She says their work is similar -- both use the same materials, they lay claim to scraps of paper they find in their bookshelf and share paint. But their surfaces and subjects are often different.
Her collage process is usually the opposite -- she starts with words and phrases and layer upward with color and texture. The windows take a lot of time and planning, but she says it's been good for her, or at least for her writer's block.
At Jones tomorrow, Casebeer's planning on bringing her own typewriter, as well as a few extras on lend from Retro Ranch.
She'll encourage guests to type their impressions, sentences, and thoughts, which they can keep ... but she (and Wilson) will be on the lookout for discards.
Jones doors open at 8 p.m., 516 E. Portland St., with musical performance by Joe Myers. For more information, see the show's invitation.
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