Cassie McGettigan

Instagram: @cassiemcgettigan

Website: http://casswebsite.org

Bio: I am a textile artist, educator, and mom based in Bolinas, California. I have a BA in Religious Studies from the University of Virginia. In 2008, I co-founded Gravel & Gold, a design collective and shop in San Francisco. There I learned on the job how to design fabric, produce clothing, curate shows, and host workshops. After eight years in business, I wanted to study how to print fabric, so I went for an MFA in Textiles at the Rhode Island School of Design and remained there to teach. I returned to California in 2021 with a daughter in tow and shifted my studio practice to sewing. This March I organized SPRINGFORM, an art show and workshop in my small town. Patchworks blazed from the rafters of an old barn; zabutons were stacked up or set out for use. I offered classes and lectures, hosted meditations and mending circles, and invited others to do the same. I listened and made a lot of tea. The open calls to sit, stitch, or talk—really just to be—together set in motion the reciprocal relationships proposed throughout my work.

Statement: After practicing meditation for over twenty years, I’ll still fix on a narrative, revel in its release, then take up another strategy, on and on. Rather than attaching to any phase, I practice looking with clarity at the whole entangled moment. Patterns operate like habits of thought in my textile work. The prints I design can feel spontaneous, but they are carefully planned statements of affinity. The patchworks I make, on the other hand, are improvised from found materials and remain provisional. Scraps of old denim, mosquito netting, or imitation batik interleave pattern redundancies with glitches and offshoots. Seams, bulges, and punctures record my labor. The new composite, like a squishy scroll, vibrates off the wall. Its connections are its strength.