Places, Spaces and Traces

Cas Homes

Places, Spaces, Traces reflects on my Romani heritage. I am interested in the commonalities we have as people, the need for a place of our own, family and food. With migration, changes in our working lives and increasing opportunities to travel, our certainty about who we are and where we fit in is unsure.

 Whilst living in a small house on the outskirts of Maidstone for much of my adult life I may, by any description, be perceived as a ‘settled’ member of my local community however my art practice and lifestyle choice contradicts this. I travel internationally in pursuit of my work and readily continue drawing, stitching and producing pieces on the move as I work and engage with others. I see what I do as being of the world and not as separate from it. Everything is collated and collected on my journey. My thinking and approaches to my work is constantly in motion and being challenged by the exchange with other people and places. 

 It is the transient nature of my work and process, a compulsion to engage with the things experienced as part of the overlooked details of daily life that are of interest. Yet, at the same time the stories I find about people and place, regardless of social, cultural and economic backgrounds inform who I am and my particular take on the world.

About The Artist

Cas Holmes is an award winning artist based on Kent. She graduated in Fine Arts from University College of Creative Arts, followed by research into paper-making and textiles in Japan. Renowned for her use of 'the found', she is the author of five books for Batsford, including her most recent ‘Embroidering the Everyday’ (2021) and ‘Textile Landscape:Painting with Cloth in Mixed Media’ (2018). Her work takes an eclectic view on how different places, everyday subjects and the landscape we live in, can inform your textile work

 Interested in the connections between land, place and environment, the stories and imagery to be found in collected materials and observations are a constant source for inspiration in her projects and collaborations. She travels, teaches and exhibits internationally for different organisations and charities

Since 2005 she has run courses for the Edward James Foundation at West Dean College where she was also resident artist. Her many-layered, atmospheric pieces are collected and commissioned internationally including pieces held by the Museum of Art and Design New York, the Embroiderer's Guild UK and the Garden Museum, London.