Casson Demmon

My paintings take a journalistic approach. My father was a journalist and my work tends to be an artist’s version of a reporter. In this way, some of my influences include books and articles, such as Hunter S. Thompson’s “Hell’s Angels”. My work began with a series that formed from working side by side with carnival workers at the Orange County Fair. I was hired by the traveling carnival company and was therefore, literally, a carnie. I began interviewing and sketching the ones that would let me. Another series of mine grew from working as a tattoo artist in Monterey. I grew up by the Salinas Valley driving by field workers daily and this has inspired my latest series. My paintings are also unique because I am colorblind and I mix my own colors. I have been doing that for years and it tends to bring a new dynamic to the common landscape. These paintings are quick frozen moments. They render in detail when lettuce floats and knives blend with shirts. They are long meditations on endlessly repeating movement.