In our sixth edition with long-time 20x200 artist Amy Casey, we find ourselves enchanted by yet another of her surreal spaces. This time, her signature stacked houses and buildings break away into a new vivid and verdant landscape in Vivacious.
Casey has a knack for embodying different perspectives on city life with her dreamy visuals, whether we're talking intricate webs, or dizzyingly tall towers of buildings. In Vivacious though, two small, single homes sit delicately perched atop a wild and lushly overgrown tree trunk. Casey’s homes seem to have tumbled out of her earlier painted urban settings, and landed amongst the moss. Their brightly painted exteriors not quite fitting into their new surroundings just yet—a nod to the recent mass exodus of city dwellers to the country.
What makes Casey’s work even more impressive (and hypnotizing) is knowing that each individually inked and drawn building and plant form is sourced from her own life. The gorgeous greenery in Vivacious comes from a small stump found on a graveyard walk in Vermont. Drawing inspiration from her surroundings, Casey imagines alternate worlds in miniature that reflect our own experiences. With climate change comes new patterns of vegetation and shifts in communities. Vivacious considers Casey’s own hopes and fears of “snuggling down” into new surroundings, which can feel magical and overwhelming at the same time.
Casey’s meticulous attention to detail allows her to create complex, chaotic worlds, crafted by precise strokes of ink and paint. From city stacks to abodes adrift, her homescapes are curious and strangely relatable, and her newest print is no exception. It beckons you in for an exploration of newness and a search for your place in Casey’s Vivacious world.
More work by Amy Casey:
