Cassandra Barney

My sister Emily (tendernessandtoil.blogspot.com), my dad, (James Christensen) and I (Cassandra...duh!) had a show this afternoon, and actually into the night, at Twiggs & Moore in Gardner Village in Utah. As usual, we met some delightful people. We were even greeted with applause as we entered the gallery last night, which felt pretty good.
I'm glad that there are super nice people who are kind enough to share their thoughts on my artwork. I like hearing and telling stories and answering interesting questions. There are a few standard questions that we get at every show. There are also expectedly some questions that, well...require clever and inventive answers. For instance, my sister and I were asked this evening how it feels to live in my dad's shadow. Emily took that one replied that we don't actually live in his shadow, we're sort of dancing around it, making our own shadows. She was also told that maybe she should think about doing some Lord of the Rings paintings. Hmmm....
Last night we were asked why we (and this question was executed with hand gestures) left the chest and shoulders exposed on several of our paintings. I replied that it was because leaving anything exposed means it's vulnerable. That was a pretty good answer. Surprisingly no one asked me about the bruise on my face that is greenish purple. I'm glad for all the questions. It keeps me on my toes and makes me aware and accountable for what I'm putting out there.

It is always amazing that my dad has buckets of fans everywhere. He's that kind of guy...and he's nice too.

We did something that I've never done before called a "quick draw". I was a little stressed about that quick part. We each had fifteen minutes to do a drawing that would be auctioned off. The thing is it's in pen, no scrap and there are lots of people watching. Weird. I really like the way my drawing turned out and one of my new friends bid on it and won. Super fun and I'm glad that I survived the pressure of it all.
Thanks everybody who worked so hard to put these shows together and I'm glad it all went well.