betsy

Betsy Casañas is a mixed media artist who focuses primarily on drawing and painting predominantly portraits. The work is a visual and written journal that combines the stories of the artist and those most interwoven in her life. She believes that sharing and listening to stories because of the basic human experience has the power to inspire others to look at their own experiences and reflect without feeling judged. She explores themes of abuse, abandonment, fatherless children, vulnerability, love, sex and family and the impact that the interlacing of those lives play in the transformation and reflection of one person. The work demonstrates that one’s life is nothing more than a combination of other lives braiding their stories, there ideas, their experiences and serving as vessels to transform, and influence the ideals of activism.Betsy Casañas was born and raised in the barrios of North Philadelphia. She is a single parent of two beautiful children Kristianni, 8 and Archangel, 13. She studied art at Moore College of art and design where she received her Bachelors in Fine Arts. Betsy is an emerging artist who has worked in the Latino community since 1994. Casañas has assisted and designed over 35 public murals and mosaics nationally and internationally (Larne, Ireland, Havana, Cuba and Morelia, Mexico). Presently Betsy is a muralist for the Philadelphia Mural Arts and the 10th grade mural design, drawing and painting teacher at The Charter High School for Architecture and Design. She is a founding member of “El Vejigante” a revolutionary collective of artists whose mission is to act as anchors for the development of community values and the preservation of its cultural roots. Betsy’s work has been exhibited in several solo and group shows. The largest was in May 2006 where Taller Puertorriqueno exhibited a retrospective on the last 8 years of Betsy’s portraits.I edited my profile with Thomas' Myspace Editor V4.4