We were lucky to catch up with Cathy Weiss recently and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Cathy, really happy you were able to join us today and we’re looking forward to sharing your story and insights with our readers. Let’s start with the heart of it all – purpose. How did you find your purpose?
I grew up in a family where both my parents were creatives as well as being very committed to their community. This commitment is generational. From my grandmother who was always helping others from sponsoring people to come to the US to being the love and light for her friends and family to my parents who were always giving back to their community, working for social justice through helping women and working towards getting liberal democrats elected. This informed what was essential in my life, my family, community, and my art. Using my art in both my practice inside my studio as well as in my public and community projects is where I find my purpose. I make work that I hope will start conversations. I am a mother, educator, and the creator and director of the Mosaic Sun Project for the nonprofit Big Sunday. This is a project I am very proud of as it brings people together and brings joy to everyone involved. I feel so grateful to have the opportunity to do what I love.
Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?
I am a visual artist with a practice both inside and outside my studio. Inside my studio I make intricate woodcut print, and mixed media constructions and installations that are metaphors for the layers of our humanity. My work is underpinned by myths, truths and stories shared by women across cultures to issues we face in today’s world. Stories that speak to our humanity, stories that address issues that we have faced throughout history and continue to. Like in a Tel which consists of layers of civilizations holding ancient tales, each new block carries forth from the blocks before but something new is added. A portal of time, a place to access these stories. I mark my woodblock figures in the way we tattoo our bodies allowing my ideas to live on and continue into the next work. Transgenerational Epigenetic Inheritance, a form of memory that is passed down generationally informs my process. I integrate memory existing in our DNA, inherited from those who came before, and will live on in those who come after. The residencies I have been awarded in Spain, Morocco, Mexico, and India have informed my growth and the work I make. Elements of nature are integrated into each work both in context of addressing environmental issues as well as symbolism across time and place. Elements such as light, shadow and air play a part in the physical nature of the work transcending it into the metaphysical. I hope to begin conversations with my work. Outside the studio I am committed to my public and community projects as well as curating exhibitions.
I am the creator and director of the Mosaic Sun Project for the nonprofit Big Sunday. My husband and I create the beginning of each sun in my studio where we only mosaic the face then we bring the sun to a location where the community comes to tile the sun using their creativity. The only rule is that they have fun! As each sun is completed my husband and I bring the sun back to my studio, grout it and take it to a location in LA to be installed, shelters, health care facilities, the VA, women’s houses, transitional living facilities, schools, and many other nonprofits. The idea behind my project is bringing community together and offering beauty and joy to the locations where we install the suns. This project began many years ago as a once-a-year event and now it has grown to weekly at the Big Sunday headquarters as well as participating in special corporate events. It is a project that I am very proud of as it brings people together and brings joy to everyone. We have a long waiting list for these suns!
I am currently working on a commission for an outdoor installation in the spring as well as curating an exhibition to build bridges across faith, culture and life experience. Past public exhibitions/installations include Seeds of Hope, a mural commission, Wallis House, Los Angeles; Love and Light at Craft Contemporary Museum in LA; Laurel Canyon, Chaparral Habitat: Native Flora and Fauna at LAX, Terminal 3; and From the Ground Up at Ontario Airport for the LA World Airports amongst others.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
I would have to say passion, perseverance and empathy have guided me in my journey. I would advise to follow your dream, hopes and desires and to not give up. I have had to take breaks along my path but found ways to get back on track and realized that some of those detours helped me land where I am today and made me a better and more thoughtful person because of it. They also helped my confidence and determination to get to where I want to be.
Before we go, any advice you can share with people who are feeling overwhelmed?
I have a morning routine that helps me start each day before getting to the studio. Having a morning routine that includes yoga, taking my dog for a walk, doing a quick watercolor and saying three things I’m grateful for keeps me centered and helps me when I’m feeling overwhelmed. Another practice is keeping a daily calendar where I can organize my day, weeks, and month with everything I need to accomplish and it feels great to cross them off my list! Lastly, this helps me so much, is this breathing technique: breath in for 4 counts, hold for 7, then release your breath for 8. I swear by it!!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.cathyweissink.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cathyweiss/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cathy-weiss-8634791a/
Image Credits
Robert M Brown
