Cassandra Pia Shepard is a Fine Art major, and has studied scholastically and independently since 1968. As a painter and fiber artist, she credits an apprenticeship with award-winning wildlife watercolorist, Ken Michaelsen, in Mendocino, California (1974-1976), using gouache medium, as a catapult for her transition to silk painting and surface design. Cassandra has been fascinated with drawing and painting since early childhood, and the joy of depiction has accompanied her throughout her life. Notable accomplishments include a solo exhibition at the San Diego Japanese Friendship Garden (2001), a feature video segment on "Faux Batik Painting" with Lynette Jennings on the Disney Channel (2001), the creation of 8 silk kimono for the 30th Anniversary Tour of Sweet Honey in the Rock (2003), a nomination for the 2004 Women Who Mean Business Awards and featured artist at the San Diego Museum of Art (2008), in conjunction with the (6th year life honoring) celebration of "Symphony of Light", the Landscape Kimono of tsujigahana master, Itchiku Kubota. Cassandra is a working fine artist, fiber art and textile designer, jewelry designer and art instructor. She is a lessee and an active member of Spanish Village Art Center, and writes the Spanish Village Art Center blog.
Cassandra's art work, silk couture, free form fiber art and jewelry are in the private collections of notable art patrons:
Gerald Ford
Dennis Day
Tracie Fox
Mrs. Bobbie Darren
Angie Dickenson
Sydney Lumet
Whoopie Goldberg
Debbie Allen
Angela Bassett
Jackee Harry
Jennifer Lewis
Dawn Lewis
Loretta Devine
Obba Babatunde
Sheryl Lee Ralph
KiKi Shepard
Rocky Carroll
Julius Carry, III
Reginald vel Johnson
Derek and Jackie Folk
Glen and Joanne Turman
Harold & Hattie Wheeler
Sweet Honey in the Rock
Judge Mablene Ephraim
Peggy Fleming Jenkins
Fern Fitzgerald Sweet
Jo Marie Payton
Lola Blank
All images, text and content copyrighted, 2010, all rights reserved
