Mounted antlers may be as ubiquitous in Wisconsin as a Friday fish fry, but you need to see the fresh spin that artist Cassandra Smith puts on them.
After growing up in Rhinelander, Cassandra moved to Milwaukee for college. The city is now where she creates her art and lives with her husband Jacob — who is also her studio manager — and their nearly six-year-old son Elwood.
Cassandra shares more about her work — which has been featured in Better Homes & Gardens, Anthropologie, Crate & Barrel, Bergdorf Goodman and elsewhere — as well as her inspiration and life in the city.
Please tell us about your path to art. And what drew you to sculpture in particular?
I’ve always been into art, which when I was younger meant making drawings from photographs and spending tons of time making posters and presentation for school. I loved that kind of stuff. After high school I didn’t know what I wanted to go to college for, so I took a year and went to Nicolet Technical College in Rhinelander. They have a really great art department and I spent time learning graphic design and ceramics. I decided I wanted to go to school for graphic design and ended up at the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design. But pretty quickly I decided to change majors, first to interior architecture and design and then to sculpture. I realized that I really liked working with 3D materials and the sculpture major at MIAD was really open to all kinds of materials and processes.
How did you become interested in antlers specifically? Please tell us about those works!
Throughout my time in college, I become interested in taxidermy, and embellishing different animals with sequins is what I did for my senior thesis. After graduating I was asked by a fellow artist, Cortney Heimerl, to create some new work for a project she was doing. The catch was the work needed to be in editions, so I needed to make multiples of essentially the same object. That is where the shed antlers came into my life. I figured they were perfect because they have the natural aesthetic that I love, but they are easy and humane to acquire. For Cortney’s project, I used sequins and paint to decorate the antlers, but after that I moved on to painting them.
Why is working with antlers meaningful to you?
I love that every antler is unique. It forces me to approach each one with fresh eyes. Even if I’m doing the same pattern on more than one antler, it’s never exactly the same. That helps keep the work challenging and interesting for me.
Please tell us about your other work, especially your knots and hatchets and taxidermy. Why do you focus on these objects?
I’ve always been really into found objects, items that have their own natural characteristics. I like to play with shapes and textures that already exist when I decorate my objects. Items like old hatchets and wood slices and taxidermy all have these great naturally occurring features that I loved to work around and with. The knots are different since I make those myself, but I still love the idea of painting on a 3D surface.
Your use of color is so wonderful! Can you share a bit about that?
I honestly feel like color is just something I stumbled into! There was never any big moment where I remember becoming obsessed with color combinations, I think it just slowly happened. Making so many antlers over the years forced me to think of new ways to combine colors and trying to create unexpected combinations. It has really become something I enjoy now. Picking out the colors for the new project is sort of my favorite part.
You’re also a curator — how does that fit in?
It’s been a while since I’ve done any curatorial work, but when I was it was such an amazing source for inspiration. I love looking at other artist’s work; it provides me with new ideas and creative energy. I used to own both a gallery and fine arts magazine with my friend and business partner, Jessica Steeber, and during that time I was constantly looking at new art and contacting artists to include in our projects. It has given me such a wealth of inspiration and connections to artists all over the world.
What significance does living in Wisconsin, and more specifically Milwaukee, have on your work?
When I was younger, I was really involved in the art scene in Milwaukee and it was always such a supportive community. People really rally to help their fellow artists in Milwaukee. There are so many amazing galleries in Milwaukee and going out to openings is so inspiring and energizing. As I get older, I am also thankful that Milwaukee is a reasonably priced place to live. It allows us to succeed as a family on a smaller budget than we would be able to in other cities.
What do you personally appreciate most about living in Wisconsin?
I love the proximity to nature. In the city, the closeness to the lake and all the parks are amazing. But I also love being able to drive outside the city or up north and be surrounded by forests and lakes. Since my husband and I both have family up north, we spend a lot of the summer swimming, boating and enjoying nature.
What does your family like to do for fun?
In the city, our favorite warm weather activity is going to the beer gardens. I’ve always thought the beer gardens were cool, but since having a child they are like a lifeline to our friends and family. We love meeting other friends who have kids there and letting the kids play while we socialize. And sometimes we’ll run into other people we know from the neighborhood. It’s just such a communal spot.
What are your favorite parts about living in Milwaukee?
One of the things I love about Milwaukee is how impacted people are by the weather. I feel like Milwaukee (and Wisconsinites more broadly) really know how to take advantage of the weather. The summer just feels like one big party with all the beer gardens, farmers’ markets, patio dining and festivals. I just love the energy of the city when it’s warm out. But I also love how everyone rallies all year too. Like anytime it snows the sledding hill comes alive with families. Or any day in the winter it’s above forty degrees, the playgrounds are full of kids. It’s just such a lovely collective mindset to really take advantage of the weather we are given.
How has being a parent impacted or influenced your art?
I don’t know if it has influenced the content of my work, but it has certainly influenced how I work. Juggling parenting and work is hard for everyone, but it’s especially hard when you don’t have coworkers or a boss to keep you on track. It falls so easily to the back burner when you need to be parenting. But that just forces you to get creative and flexible. We are lucky that our studio is attached to our house, so going out and working becomes a family affair when our son isn’t at school. We each work on our own project and I think it’s really cool that Elwood gets to see us being creative.
What does it mean that your son will grow up seeing you do this work?
It’s really interesting to see him grow up with two artists for parents. He knows that we make art for a living but I’m not sure he sees it as an actual occupation yet. I think he’s going to appreciate how atypical our work is as he gets older. Right now, he loves asking us to create ideas he has in his head. He loves to come up with really wild ideas for projects made from cardboard or fabric and he helps us make them a reality. He just assumes that we can make anything he wants! And it’s really cool to see his imagination go wild.
– Katie Vaughn
Photos courtesy of Cassandra Smith.
Katie Vaughn is the editor and co-founder of Northerly. She is a University of Wisconsin-Madison and Stanford University-trained journalist with experience as a writer, reporter, editor, blogger and author. She lives in Madison with her husband, daughter and son, and is always up for an adventure.