Meet Cassandra “Schizandra” Vannier

Today we’d like to introduce you to Cassandra “Schizandra” Vannier.

Cassandra, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I’m a self-taught artist residing in Phoenix with a home studio. I had always considered myself a musician first but felt a strong pull back toward visual art in recent years. I have had a few experiences that I believe to be a form of synesthesia called “Emotionally Mediated Synesthesia” where I simultaneously see and feel people in colors. It has felt only natural for me to paint these experiences after they happen, and I have always had a fascination with figurative art and with artists who paint what is felt.

I grew up as an only child in upstate NY, and my parents didn’t have the money to put me in a private arts school or buy me fancy supplies. But, I still had colored pencils, markers, paper, and a tiny Casio keyboard that my dad found at a garage sale. All you need is paper and a pen to start! This gave me the foundation to learn art, which I mostly did by copying what I saw until I was a teenager. When I was 13 my mom asked me what I want for Christmas and I said oil paints, so they got me an affordable Grumbacher set with a few brushes and some canvas paper. This was all I wanted. I promptly cranked up some Vivaldi (I am also a violinist!) and painted a landscape right from my brain. My mom yelled into my room “Are you sure you know what you’re doing??”, I didn’t, but I did. When I presented my landscape they were pleasantly shocked, and then realized that from only having 3 TV channels to choose from in my childhood I was constantly watching Bob Ross on PBS. I had no idea that I had actually learned how to paint just from watching him! My parents still have this painting of my happy little trees framed and in their living room.

That act of love and encouragement from my parents set the framework for my creativity; I had discovered the ability to create worlds that would not exist unless I bring them to life. I am so very lucky that I had absolutely amazing art teachers at my public school as well, a couple of which I am still in touch with today. My high school art teacher, Tom Myott, introduced me to the work of Salvador Dali which I believe I will forever be obsessed with and inspired by. My style has deviated from that inspiration greatly, but the influence of bending reality in my art will always be there.

To me, art is an opportunity to turn the unseen into something for others to see. My goal for my next few series is to dive into the darker parts of the human condition, our relationships with each other and with ourselves, and to bring the things I feel we keep beneath the surface up through the surface in color and shape. I like to create art that reaches into people.

Over the last year, I have developed a strong interest in astrology and tarot and how these archetypes are represented. They have started popping up in recent works of mine and I think it will be a reoccurring theme. I would like to explore these archetypes deeper in both my art and my relationships with others. I have been practicing figurative work and color theory and experimenting with different wet and dry mediums for the last few years, and am looking forward to quickly expanding my body of work over the next year with all of these new inspirations!

Has it been a smooth road?
I don’t believe any artist would describe their journey as a smooth road, although I recognize that I have more privileges than many. I am honestly at the beginning of that road in just starting my professional career. A huge obstacle for me has been trying to juggle a full-time restaurant job while having most of my family in NY and my husband forward deployed in Japan for the last two years. When I work on a piece, I definitely like to binge on it. I have an extremely hard time with the “just an hour here or there” mindset; I want to indulge and let it consume me. My best work has come from those moments of indulgence.

I have not been nearly as prolific over the last couple of years as I would like to have been, but I have an amazingly supportive husband who has finally convinced me to leave the restaurant industry and take the giant leap of faith to focus on my art full time. As of right now, I have four serving and bartending shifts left before the pressure (and freedom) is on!

Last year I struggled a lot with feeling confident enough to paint a face, despite being able to draw them quite well. I took a workshop with local artist Michael Carson whom I had already met at local drawing events, and within just three days, I swear he fixed me. I went home after that to finish a large piece I had felt stuck on, and I still feel as though it’s my best painting of last year (Titled “To Let Your River Run Through Me”). I’m so grateful I was able to attend his workshop and gain the confidence I needed to push through.

Please tell us more about your art.
I prefer to make art for the sake of art as it inspires me, but I do take commissions and am lucky enough to have a pretty wide range of styles, mediums, and subject matter. I’d say my focus is on figurative and expressive art at the moment but I love to do commissioned portraits. My work, I have been told, looks very imaginative and dreamlike, like a cross between the physical world and the one we can’t see. I like to combine high contrast drip style painting with soft ethereal brushstrokes, and believe that juxtaposition is what others have called my “style”.

This year I am most proud of executing my first art show on a whim at my favorite cozy Phoenix cafe, Songbird Coffee and Tea House. I had twelve pieces up there for two months, it was truly a dream come true.

Now that all of my pieces are back home, I have them back in my online shop at cassandraschizandra.com, along with some prints and sketches.

Let’s touch on your thoughts about our city – what do you like the most and least?
I adore Phoenix and its surrounding cities. I don’t want to leave if I’m honest, but as the wife of a Marine, I know that day will inevitably come. My husband and I are both from a small town in upstate NY and are enamored with this desert melting pot. You can drive just 10 minutes in any direction and feel almost like you’re in a new city. Where we’re from people, mostly keep to themselves, but my experience here is that everyone has been so friendly from the moment we got off the plane just over five years ago. There is so much culture and art here and I am constantly meeting new and inspiring people. Also, I love the heat! I shamelessly drink hot coffee on those 117 degree days, and my husband and I have already discussed retiring here someday.

Pricing:

• Commissioned drawn portraits 9×12 for $120

Contact Info:

• Website: cassandraschizandra.com
• Email: cassandravannier@gmail.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/cassandraschizandra
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cassandra.vannier

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