Atelier OPEN: Meet the Artist Cassia Beck

Our Atelier OPEN exhibition continues at our contemporary art gallery on Brighton Beach, and we've invited some our exhibiting artists to tell us a bit more about themselves and their work. With 150 exhibitors, we might not get to hear from them all, but we'll do our best!

Cassia Beck tells us about her fear of diving...

I am a mother of three children and two dogs. I moved from Devon to Brighton in 2001. I love it here so much, I doubt I will be leaving.

My collages were all made using hand cut papers from old magazines and glued to vintage book pages. They are inspired by my own love of swimming and are nostalgic for me. I think I am travelling back to my childhood where we spent a lot of time swimming.

I used to watch my brothers diving from really high rock faces and I was always in awe (and fear) of their perfect swan dives! I can't dive to this day so I think I am living my diving dream through the pictures. I was unpicking my ideas with a customer recently. We were laughing about my fear of heights and how height often plays a part in my work.

This is definitely a long running series. People are usually my main subjects but there is something about the shape of the human diving form that lures me back time after time.

My creative practice is quite spontaneous. I have drawers of cuttings and colourful papers. These tell me what I will make next. It's about sitting with the elements and playing with composition until it comes together. So often I will be surprised by what I come up with just because a figure fell onto another cutting and I have a hallelujah moment. 

I did a degree in ceramics. Completely different to what I do now. While I was studying, I was making collages in the backgroud, so it's something I have always done. I am self taught and just do it because I love it.

I am a full time artist. I make my work at home, at the kitchen table. Now my children are almost all at secondary school, I am searching for a shared studio in Brighton. I would love to have a space where I can get messy and leave my unfinished work lying around. 

I have been exhibiting in open houses for years now. Showing in galleries is relatively new to me because I haven't exhibited since I graduated. I am dipping my toes in the water.

People can see my work on my website at cassiabeck.com. I am active on Instagram where I post any news about what I am doing or making.

There are just three weeks left to see the Atelier OPEN. Come and visit before 17th September!