To purchase or see more, contact Sue Hermes:

505-345-2872 ext. 12

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In this full body portrait, a woman in a floor length dress stands straight, facing forward with her arms hanging at her sides. Two red hearts float on either side of her head. Her closed lips are skewed in a crooked smile, her hands and face are green, and her long straight brown hair flows toward the bottom of the page, terminated only by the paper's edge. Her long sleeved dress sports vertical blue stripes alternating with white stripes containing pink and red dots. The background is dark grey with a number of yellow rectangular shapes popping up behind the womans figure, and on the right in the upper corner, there is a pyramid of six white squares, stacked one on top, two in the middle and three on the bottom. The squares are bisected vertically and horizontally and in a windowpane configuration. To the left of the squares, there is a white teardrop shape that is also bisected vertically and horizontally and resembles a windowpane.

Casey Ferguson

The most immediately striking thing about this black marker portrait of a woman, drawn from the bare shoulders up, is that her skin (except eyelids and lips) is covered with small black irregularly shaped squares that are offset so that only the corners touch, forming a checkerboard pattern. Her hair is center parted and sweeps out slightly on the ends, terminating in a straight chin length bob. Small iconic drawings with hearts, checker patterns, stick figures and even a miniature “Scuba Susan” surround the tattoo lady.

Casey's imaginative world, as expressed through his pen and ink drawings, has captivated connoisseurs of naïve art for a number of years. Many of Casey's works have a playful quality, but he often combines this with a more thoughtful and interestingly complex view of the world around him. Casey has been refining his skills and developing his techniques as an artist at VSA's North Fourth Art Center for a number of years.

Casey's work has been featured in exhibits at the VSA gallery and other venues statewide as well as at autism conferences in New Mexico and other states.

The central figure in this fancifully drawn image is a woman in a brown, green and yellow dress wearing a round facemask, three cylendrical yellow tanks, which are strapped to her back, and flippers on her feet. We know she is swimming under blue water by the small and large orange fish above below and behind her, her body is parallel to the tops of green seaweed fronds and her long black hair floats up above her neck and back. The figures in this painting are a woman and a man, painted from the chest up, facing forward. In the foreground, the man's left hand grips the top left side of a steering wheel, his right arm is not shown, as the woman to his right is leaning against his chest. In front of the woman is a small crest that is labeled “Route 66.” Both the man and the woman are clothed in crew neck shirts, hers yellow, his green. He is somewhat taller than she and has closely cropped black hair. She has side parted, chin length hair that is outlined in black, but the color is light. Her lips are large and red, and her football shaped mouth is open, giving the impression that she is speaking. The background is painted a homogeneous medium blue.

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The North Fourth Art Center is operated by VSA arts of New Mexico, a not-for-profit organization, affiliated with The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and the national VSA arts network.