Artist Statement
I create assemblage objects and mixed media images. I find this form of expression a natural fit because in the studio, as in life, my goal is to bring together the random bits and pieces of my world and transform them into something meaningful. My method of creation is to begin each piece with a general concept—a line from a song, an image from a dream—and let the shapes and textures on my workbench guide me from there.
Overall, my work is about pulling dreams into reality and remaining playful, curious and willing to take risks in a stressful contemporary environment. “Playful” does not necessarily mean “positive.” It means finding balance in a world increasingly intent on knocking us all off the tightrope.
In my effort to find such balance, I am inspired by the survivors of abuse and trauma I worked with during my years as a clinical social worker. They were simultaneously my clients and my teachers, modeling resilience, hope and the importance of hanging onto small moments of joy.
Mixed-media sculpture is my way of discovering and shaping those moments, as well as pulling meaning from whatever else life throws my way.
Artist Bio
Cathy Engel-Marder is a self-taught artist who has won numerous awards for her assemblage and mixed-media sculptures since she began showing them in 2019.
She has earned two masters degrees from the University of Southern California, which led her first to a career as a Spanish interpreter in the Los Angeles County criminal courts and later as a Licensed Clinical Social Worker. In her second career, while providing therapy to families affected by violence and trauma, she developed an interest in the relationship between art and healing. She regularly incorporated art-as-process into her work with abuse survivors and others struggling to express themselves in words.
She has lived in Spain and has a particular fondness for Barcelona and the people of Catalonia. Now retired, she lives in Los Angeles and devotes her time to travel and art. She is the recipient of a 2023 Picerne Family Foundation Grant, through which she developed and taught a series of mixed media workshops to families living in homeless shelters in her community.

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