Presented by Mena Art Gallery

Painting: New Sheriff in Town. Daniel Cassity won an Award of Excellence in the 2015 Art of the Heatland competition. Artist's Statement: My Still Lifes represent the fall of controlled light upon a variety of textures. To produce them I arrange items in a manner that is meant to stimulate the viewer beyond the painted surface: usually intended to imply an event or story, often countering initial humor with sadness or darkness, resulting in complexity of content. Therefore, my paintings are conceptual - while still drawing from the genre's rich history of direct observation. As I work from direct observation, setting up and lighting the scenario physically begins the artistic process, followed by a month or two of actual painting. Viewers are thus invited into my fictional world - an imaginary "Kingdom" - wherein ordinary and not so ordinary objects comprise metaphorical characters: a mainstay of which are origami dragons. Along with my origami dragon scenarios, another visual trademark is my inclusion of colored glass to produce luminous shadows: shadows are a major compositional concern of my still lifes.