Mr. Henry Casselli

Henry Casselli: Drawing From the Inside Out
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Henry Casselli is almost never without paper and pencil, and this has been the case for most of his life.When parents today ask him how to nurture an interest in art in their children, Casselli advises them to make sure sketching materials are always available."That child will go to art school soon enough and then spend the rest of his or her life undoing all of that education, trying to get back to the feeling and honesty behind those first marks," he says."If the honesty of effort and desire are truly there, the artist within reveals itself."The same principle applies in Casselli's own approach, as he often relies on drawing as an end unto itself and also as the primary resource and tool in his process of expressing a subject "from the gut," as he describes it.

Casselli's oeuvre consists mostly of figurative subjects, portraits done on commission and others of his own devising.No matter how a subject comes to him, however, he creates the art only from his own experience and emotional response and tells portrait clients from the beginning that he can only paint what is there, that he is not in the business of vanity portraiture.Whether the subject is the president of the United States, a young black child, a bucket, or a ballerina, Casselli follows the same approach and is equally inspired by what he tries to uncover and convey about his subject, emphasizing that there are no rules or magic formulas."There is, however, even now and today, that moment of fright when I face a blank page, and I feel strongly that all would be lost if that moment is ever replaced by overconfidence," he says.So in approaching a new drawing he calls upon both what he sees and what he feels, adding, "Every moment, every experience in life with all the people I encounter, affects what I do.
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View a gallery of additional work by Casselli.
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Casselli became a kind of son to McCrady, who shared his techniques and his extensive art library, and after a year at the school, McCrady made Casselli an assistant, a position in which he flourished as both teacher and student.Two-and-a-half years after starting school, however, Casselli left to join the Marine Corps as a combat artist.On the move for 14 months in Vietnam, he documented "life and death, horror and tragedy," he says.
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Casselli followed the astronauts for a year, and on launch day he was among the few people who had access to them.He drew them from the minute they awoke until they walked into the craft, and "it was exhilarating," he says.By then he had begun to see the astronautsâ€"John W. Young and Robert Crippenâ€"more as friends than as subjects, and this is reflected in the emotional content of the drawings.

The notoriety he gained from the NASA drawingsâ€"which are shared by the National Portrait Gallery and the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, both in Washington, DCâ€"led to other important commissions, including a portrait of President Ronald Reagan.When he began this project he was told he might have only about 15 minutes with the president in the Oval Office and that he could consult the White House photo archives for whatever additional images he might need."I told them I don't work that way, much less from other people's photos," he says, adding that he almost walked away from the commission.On the day of his appointment, however, Casselli brought his sketchbook and pencil along with a camera, and fortunately the visit lasted more than four days, during which Casselli made 32 drawings of "everything from good scribbles that are incomplete to more finished drawings and sketches," he describes.He also made what he calls "word sketches" in a journal, a private collection of descriptive observations used to cement impressions."The president was very open, and we had a wonderful visit," Casselli says.
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As in the portrait commission of former President Reagan, Casselli begins any new portrait or painting with drawings of the subject in his or her environment.
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Once back in the studio, Casselli makes more drawings as he works on the painting."I might want to explore a different pose or different aspect of the subject," he explains, "and I can sit and think with pencil and paperâ€"have a conversation with myself."The drawing process stimulates new drawings, which continue to inform the painting."The drawings assist me, help me to understand my subject, and push me along," the artist describes.All the energy and emotion within the imagery, however, originates from the artist's initial response to the subject and what he has absorbed in subsequent visits, and to this end the artist puts away all the preliminary drawings, notes, and photographs at this point."I don't impose any scenario or environment on the subject," he explains.
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Although some of his drawings can be grouped together, Casselli tends not to work in series.One exception centered on Hurricane Katrina, an experience that compelled him to create a series of drawings in the midst of the aftermath, but it was unintentional."I watched my old neighborhood disappear, and I swore I would not make Katrina artwork," he recalls."I bought some supplies while I was away from the city for two months, and my first sketch was a Katrina image.The second was also Katrina, so I stopped working."After returning home, Casselli was consumed for the first year with the needs of others."I was born and raised in the Ninth Ward, and although there were only bumps and bruises to my current home in the Garden District, my old stomping groundsâ€"that piece of mud from which I cameâ€"was wiped away.The people there were a lot worse off than I was, and I found it difficult to sit in my studio and paint while those people were suffering.All my physical and emotional energies were directed toward them."

About a year later, Casselli realized that it was time to turn his attention back to his own family and work, but every time he picked up a pencil "out came Katrina," he says."I tossed them into a filing cabinet.My plan was that no one would see them, but the drawings kept coming."At the time the artist was in discussions with the New Orleans Museum of Art about a retrospective exhibition of a collection of Casselli's drawings owned by a German couple.Katrina seriously damaged the museum, however, and the show and the catalogue were set aside while the museum recovered.Meanwhile, the German collector learned of the artist's Katrina drawings and asked to see them.Casselli resisted, insisting they were private works, "and they were drawn in tears."Eventually he acquiesced, however, and when the collector said she wanted to purchase them and add them to the group she and her husband donated to the New Orleans Museum of Art, Casselli agreed to the sale only with the understanding that the drawings would be kept together as a group and that they should be set before the public as a witness, as a reminder of what happened.In this way the Katrina drawings parallel the combat drawings, which also serve as a record of the experience for the people involved."From time to time there is another feeling for a Katrina painting from the drawings, but I won't allow it," he adds.
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Casselli also uses a kneaded eraser to lift out and soften lines but never for erasing, insisting that it is a drawing instrument and "not a crutch."

The artist tends to favor larger-format papers, often employing an 18"-x-24" pad."I instinctively go right to where the drawing has to be placed within that format," he says.
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Henry Casselli, of New Orleans, has received numerous honors and awards, including the Gold Medal of Honor from the American Watercolor Society.His work is widely collected and hangs in such prominent museum collections as the National Portrait Gallery, in Washington, DC, and the New Orleans Museum of Art.
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For more information on Casselli, visit his website at www.henrycasselli.com.

View a gallery of additional work by Casselli.
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Plus, a profile of Louisiana artist Henry Casselli from Charles Bush.

Henry Casselli : Master of the American Watercolor, Nov 12, 00 - Jan 7, 01This mid-career retrospective features 125 watercolors in the Sargent-Homer- Wyeth tradition by New Orleans realist painter Henry Casselli.In 1988, he was awarded the Gold Medal of the American Watercolor Society and was commissioned to paint the official portrait of President Reagan for the National Portrait Gallery.

Serving as juror for this year's exhibit was Henry Casselli, internationally recognized watercolor artist based in New Orleans, Louisiana.Having attended the McCrady School of Fine & Applied Arts in New Orleans, Casselli later taught at the very same institution.He was a combat artist during the Vietnam War, with works included in the U.S. Marine Corps Museum.Casselli served as the official artist for the National Aeronautics & Space Administration (NASA), with a celebrated painting by John Glenn.
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You can learn more about Mr. Casselli on his website, www.henrycasselli.com
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For this year's "New Works/9 States" exhibit, Mr. Casselli selected 39 artworks 17 Midwest regional artists.
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- Henry Casselli
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Henry Casselli, "New Works/Nine States" juror

Juror: Henry Casselli, internationally recognized watercolor artist based in New Orleans, Louisiana.Having attended the McCrady School of Fine & Applied Arts in New Orleans, Casselli later taught at the very same institution.He was a combat artist during the Vietnam War, with works included in the U.S. Marine Corps Museum.Casselli served as the official artist for the National Aeronautics & Space Administration (NASA), with a celebrated painting by John Glenn.
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Mr. Casselli selected 17 artists for this year's exhibit:

Garland also credits local artist Henry Casselli as being a major source of encouragement, information and much-appreciated critique.
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"It's amazing that people don't know he's here," Garland says of Casselli.
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Their friendship began in the late 1970s, after Garland had noticed a painting of Casselli's in a French Quarter shop window.
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After some early resistance from Casselli and a lot of persistence from Garland, Casselli eventually relented and agreed to review some of Garland's work.
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After some early resistance from Casselli and a lot of persistence from Garland, Casselli eventually relented and agreed to review some of Garland's work.
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In fact, on the day of our interview, Garland had just returned from visiting with Casselli to get his critique of a new portrait of Garland's daughter.

Henry Casselli is a local artist, born in the Ninth Ward, who has enjoyed much success.Casselli's work is a witness to history: as shown in his work in Vietnam as a combat artist, at NASA, in the White House and after Hurricane Katrina; it is also an intimate recorder of the human condition.This is evident in the exhibition Really Beautiful: Henry Casselli Drawings, Sketches and Watercolor Pre-studies now open at the New Orleans Museum of Art.From Crucifixion, a pen and ink drawing done when the artist was sixteen years old, to the moving Katrina's Left Behind studies, these works represent forty-two years of dedicated effort and have never been seen publicly.

"I named the exhibition Really Beautiful because Casselli's work is both realistic and beautiful," said George Roland, Doris Zemurray Stone Curator of Prints and Drawings.
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Drawing has preoccupied Casselli since he was a schoolboy.Talent, training and hard work have won him a life-long career as an artist and his sensitivity and vision have touched many admirers.Precise, detailed, fluid and sensitive, they reveal an artist in an intimate relationship with his subject.He seeks expressive means of recording information about people and objects; and, although he refers to many of these drawings later in more comprehensive compositions, they may themselves be considered works of art.

"I've included reproductions of several of Casselli's paintings along with the drawings so that visitors could see how the sketches have contributed to the final product and how the drawings themselves are unique works of art," said Roland.
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When Casselli fled his home during the hurricane, he did not intend to record the disaster.Anxiety and loss provoked him to draw what he had seen and experienced.The drawings and their titles: 'Some Say Our Music Will Lead Us Back', The Things These Eyes Have Seen', etc., conjure up powerful memories of the days and weeks after the storm.

"Katrina had awakened many ghosts from Vietnam," said Casselli."Regardless of how consciously I tried not to touch the subject, it kept coming out each time I put pencil to paper.The angry, frightened, strained faces of those left behind, scribbles of private thoughts, moments of seeing and feeling ... "

Casselli has received numerous honors and awards including the American Watercolor Society's Gold Medal of Honor.
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A Conversation with Henry Casselli with George Roland, the Doris Zemurray Stone Curator of Prints and Drawings, NOMA, and Henry Casselli, Artist
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A Conversation with Henry Casselli with George Roland, the Doris Zemurray Stone Curator of Prints and Drawings, NOMA, and Henry Casselli, Artist
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Even in his earliest artistic efforts, New Orleans native Henry Casselli successfully captured the intimate details of the human condition.Join curator of Prints and Drawings George Roland for a discussion with Casselli on his work to date with particular attention to the drawings in the exhibition Really Beautiful: Henry Casselli Drawings, Sketches and Watercolors from the Lieselotte and Ernest Tansey Collection, on view at the New Orleans Museum of Art through September 2, 2007 .

New Orleans artist Henry Casselli talks about his work--brooding portraits that portray the present and imply the painful past of his subjects' lives.