about

I am endlessly fascinated with the interconnectedness of the wider world, as evidenced in the tiniest details of our daily interactions. As a social worker and grief therapist, I worked intimately with children and adults and their families who were touched by death. These experiences provided me unique insight as to how spirituality and religion affect us on both personal and cultural levels.  With the understanding that death is wholly universal and inescapable–superseding all boundaries and divisions– I came to realize that this shared experience is the most common bond we humans share. This interconnectedness resonates in my artistic explorations through my studied examination of the influence of life and death among us. I am particularly interested in how these spiritual and religious beliefs toward death manifest in our psyches, bodies, traditions, and world views. 

In building the stratification of layers in my mixed media work, my processes commonly include painting, assemblage and sculpture, specifically through the use of encaustic, collage, cold wax, pastel and found objects. The element of heat, whether a blowtorch, heat gun or open fire, is a frequent companion in my work as it moves the materials to a level of expression that I cannot often reach without it.

Encaustic Artist, Pendleton Art Center, Encaustic, Encaustics
Tracy Casagrande Clancy, Encaustic Process
Tracysecondraw 2807 Edit Tracy Casagrande Clancy Encaustic Mixed Media
DSC 8864 Tracy Casagrande Clancy Encaustic Mixed Media

Tracy Casagrande Clancy is an American artist known for her two dimensional and three dimensional mixed media work. Thirteen pieces of her series “Collective Memory” were exhibited in the 2021 Art Basel (Miami). Select pieces from her “Lost in Thought” series were exhibited in Paris, France. Tracy has participated in solo and group exhibitions in galleries throughout North America including New York City, Chicago and Boston, and across the American Midwest. Her works are held in private collections through North America, Europe, and Australia. Her newest series, “Fever Dream” is included in several shows in the United States and will be shown in a forthcoming solo gallery show in early 2023. 

Casagrande Clancy is a member of International Encaustic Artists (IEA), Encaustic Art Institute (EAI), Encaustic Art Institute and Catalyst Art Lab (Chicago) and The Crit Lab (New York), with whom she completed a residency in Italy in 2022. 

Casagrande Clancy holds graduate and undergraduate degrees in Counseling, Social Work, Sociology, and Fine Art. Prior to returning to work as a full-time artist twelve years ago, she worked as a therapist with children and their families who experienced trauma, crisis, death, and grief. Her areas of specialty included Pediatric and Neonatal ICU, Emergency Medicine, Pulmonology, and Neurology. Tracy also served as a crisis counselor with the American Red Cross in their Disaster Relief Mobile Response Unit. Her experience working in these various fields intimately informs Casagrande Clancy’s work. These themes can be seen through Tracy’s consistent use of iconography and reference to shelter, decay, anatomy, and the human figure in all its incarnation.

Tracy’s studio is part of Pendleton Art Center in Cincinnati, Ohio. A former shoe factory, the eight- story warehouse is home to more than 200 artists of every imaginable mediums.

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