Cassie Doyon grew up in Gloucester, Massachusetts, where her grandfather was a fisherman, and father as well before he joined the Navy. As a child, she would comb the beach for sea glass. In third grade, she produced her first mosaic, a pinto pony on the beach using her sea glass collection. It won second prize in the Boston Archdiocese Art show.
Thirty-five years later, after earning a degree in graphic design with a second concentration in biology, she added a master’s degree at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University in Boston. There, Doyon was coached to include both macro and micro narratives in her art and she embraced mosaics as her medium.
Doyon’s December exhibition at Galatea Fine Art, titled “Journey,” will include works from several series, most recently one addressing addiction, while others are concerned with environmental plundering, the whims and glories of nature and interpersonal needs and difficulties. A lot of powerful subjects but addressed in the gems of tesserae and glass beads, a glitter of design and lovingly built works that speak with carefully assembled beauty about deep things.
The ocean and Earth are her artistic parents. As a child, she would linger over tidal pools; as an adult, Doyon is a dedicated and widely traveled snorkeler with her husband. She has explored the Great Barrier Reef as well as reefs off Thailand, Fiji and in the Caribbean. The sea and all its brilliantly colored creatures are in her artist lexicon.
As a child in Gloucester, she was aware of the “hard scrabble lives of the disenfranchised.” Her mother was kind to a homeless clamdigger named Floyd who would rest near the Fisherman Statue monument on the boulevard where she lived. Her mother’s example led a four-year-old Cassie to invite Floyd in for a glass of milk much to her mother’s surprise.
In her exhibition, Doyon will display a mosaic portrait of the Gloucester clamdigger, Floyd Morris, based on a black-and-white photo. It is a segue to her new series of works in the Galatea exhibit that are dedicated to homeless individuals and those suffering from addiction. One piece under construction in her studio is a large mask-like face, which will be a mosaic of beer bottle caps. Doyon collected the caps during catamaran trips over the years and from around the world.
Another new work in her studio, “Anemone,” is a glorious free-standing burst of life, which brings the tide pool with it. There are over 100 hat pins thatsupport glass beads to imitate the swaying, stinging tentacles of this plant-like sea animal. The stem body is a rich red and gold composed lovingly of Italian smalti that Doyon imports from Italy and breaks down to tiny pieces.
“Boundaries,” which was shown in the Danforth Museum’s Annual Juried Exhibit in 2024, is a prickly, curly pair of turquoise paramecium shapes with scarlet centers. When I saw them at the Danforth, I imagined microscopic animals, where all functions, heart, digestion and sex occur within one cell wall. Doyon admitted that her biology concentration in college continues to infuse her imagery, but explained the pair was derived from the metaphor “porcupine dilemma” that was used by Sigmund Freud and Arthur Schopenhauer in which it is difficult to be close enough to comfort each other when the outer body is composed of spines.
Another stunning diptych, “Subconscious,” reminded me of the majestic mosaics at the Taj Mahal in Delhi, India, built as a memorial to a beloved wife. The outer protective layer of icy white glass beads hovers over intensely colored segments. There are curving tendrils sprouting from the crystalline outer shell. Doyon explained that this pair illustrates the simultaneity of intimacy and aversion, with the need to connect equally as strong as the need to protect. Once again, Doyon takes on strong stories with incredibly beautiful use of the magical media of glass and tesserae.
One must imagine that visiting Oceania countries to snorkel added native art practices to her deep shelf of influences. The “Geologic Totems” series are quietly powerful. A muted earth-based palate and designs that recall Indigenous art patterns in continents she has visited. This series is dedicated to concern for environmental disasters in the air and the ground beneath us. Doyon has a gift for making beautiful objects that address difficult issues of concern to us all.
Never short of amazing influences, Doyon’s “Macro/Micro” is inspired by the microscopic image of a beetle’s foot. Of it, she wrote: “The lush colors of miniature worlds fascinate and invite exploration… it celebrates my love of nature and the whimsey within.”
Doyen covers a vast narrative territory in her works composed of tiny shards and beads where the embrace of beauty helps us get to the point.
The opening reception for “Journey” is scheduled for Friday, December 6, from 5-8 p.m. Doyon will give a gallery talk on Saturday, December 14 at 2 p.m.