EDITOR'S NOTE: This article appeared previously in the August issue of the Pagosa Post magazine.
“I hate to get too philosophical,” Cass laughed. “But change is the only constant in this life. I believe that everything you experience brings you to the place you are now. Since I was little, I always thought that I would be an artist. My parents were both painters and teachers. My grandparents were also creative. My education was all about art. I had always drawn and painted, re-arranged furniture, taken photos, designed clothes, cooked gourmet foods. All creative projects — but I was not really an artist.”
She looked down and was quiet for a moment, and when she looked up at me, her eyes were filled with tears.
I’ve known Cass for ten years and she has always been a very candid person, but I had no idea what this typically bubbly, happy person was about to say.
“I was pregnant with twins, that I lost. Stillborn. That was in 1988. That was the beginning of the really emotionally difficult changes that I’ve been through. The death of both my parents, and the loss of my twins, my first husband, lots of friends, and my real estate career made me realize that time can run out pretty quickly, and I had better get moving if I wanted to make my dream happen.
“Being an artist has always been my dream, but I had to be catapulted into that change.”
Cass Calley, one of the few professional artists in Pagosa Springs who actually supports herself with her artwork, was sitting at the large outdoor table on her flower-basket-laden, east-facing deck, referring to a hand-written sheet of notes — a brief summary of her life, up until now: a Bachelor’s degree in Fine Art, graduating Magna Cum Laude from the University of North Texas; a half-finished Master’s degree; a 23-year marriage to real estate sales manager David Wright; traveling and selling timeshares for Fairfiled and Marriott in Texas, Lake Tahoe, the Oregon Coast, Florida, Sedona, Pagosa, Vail, Maui, Williamsburg, Breckenridge.
“David and I lived here in Pagosa in the late ‘80s. Fiarfield went through a Chapter 11 bankruptcy and it was time for a change. With no kids in tow, we left and went on a ‘walkabout’. We sold timeshares all over the USA. Lots of destination locations; really quite an adventure. Then in ’96, we were tired of being traveling ‘gypsies.’ We came back to Pagosa and sold large acreages, working for Land Properties.
“As my marriage began unraveling and really falling apart, that’s when I decided it was my time to be an artist — if I was ever going to be one.” Continued...
Cass in her sandblasting studio, and the sandblasting case that allows her to etch glass up to six feet wide by any length. (The glass panel must be flipped to complete a 6-foot wide sheet.) |
Beyond the big, wrap-around deck was a sweeping view of Broken Off Peak, looming over one of the lush rolling valleys that make up the Aspen Springs subdivision — a valley dotted with modest homes in various stages of remodeling; sweeping pastures; pine trees; and pickup trucks. And up here on the hillside, the compound of log buildings which make up “Stardance Ranch” — home to Cass Calley Architectural Art Glass shop and studio.
I’ve spent many an evening playing music on this deck. Cass and her now husband, musician and home builder Stephen Tholberg — two of my oldest friends here in Pagosa — throw great parties at their hilltop log cabin a few times a year, big potluck affairs that often wind up with a dozen or more musicians performing impromptu on guitars, bongo drums, flutes, saxophones, accordions, and of course, a mix of sweet and raspy voices entertaining a cozy audience.
But the quiet conversation out on the deck on this July afternoon had a different focus: Cass’ artistic career, as a maker of original, handcrafted, etched and carved glass panels.
 “After leaving Land Properties, I decided to be brave and finally become an artist. I said to myself, ‘I know I can do this.’ But the truth was, I wasn’t quite gutsy enough to just start over and become a painter. I didn’t want to be a ‘starving artist.’ I’m practical. What could I do in a small mountain town that would be creative and marketable? It would be some sort of utilitarian application, something connected to architecture — and draw upon all the builders, architects, realtors and home owners I’d met while I was working for so many years in real estate.
“I’d had an experience in Dallas over 25 years ago, working with a glass etching company called Prism Glass. We did some amazing nightclubs on Greenville Avenue, booth dividers for beautiful restaurants, and some art panels for high-end homes. That was my first exposure to the process of glass etching.”
Once Cass made her decision to leave real estate for the new artistic direction, with a wholehearted commitment to invest in this big career shift, she enrolled in a two-week glass etching and carving class with Norm and Ruth Dobbins at Aliento Glass School in Santa Fe, NM. That ‘refresher’ course re-introduced her to the latest glass carving products, equipment, and technologies — and also delivered a healthy dose of inspiration.
But a professional artist with aspirations to actually make a living needs more than inspiration and a talented eye. There’s also the little matter of selling your work.
“I wanted to create large scale works that people could justify buying. You know, someone can spend $5000 on a fabulous original painting — well, the truth is, not everyone can swallow that. But if they are doing an impressive entrance to their new $5 million home in Telluride, then that same $5000 — for an elegant mountain scene with an aspen grove, and a bubbling stream with a waterfall, and a massive bull elk etched on the glass of their front entry — that cost gets absorbed into the bigger project of building their gorgeous custom home. That is what would make me marketable, and it would give me consistent work — which it has." Continued...
Cass and friends Joni Jill and Randall Barlow in the Barlow's home, posing with a large office window project featuring sandblasted aspen trees. |
“Selling timeshare and real estate, usually you’re essentially self employed. If you’re successful at selling, and running your business, then you’ve got a pretty good idea about time management stuff, and about marketing yourself. I joke about it: if you can sell timeshare, you can sell anything. How much easier to sell something you truly believe in. You can control the quality of your product because you and your creativity are the product.”
Cass began to gather the tools and equipment for her new business.
”I was humble and excited at the same time. I cleaned houses, I babysat, I tutored kids, I taught art classes. I did whatever I could to make the money to buy all my equipment and materials — and I got started.
“And it took off. I’ve been doing it now for ten years. Fulltime.”
Her carving is done using silicon carbide; she jokes about it being “diamond dust” and that she looks like a coal miner when she works. She blasts in a special sandblasting cabinet that can accommodate a sheet of glass 6 feet wide by any length. She has perfected a shading technique that is similar to airbrushing and allows her to create the illusion of depth and shape on tempered glass.
Cass also implements a process from the 1800s, an old-fashioned “glue chip” technique that utilizes hot horse-hide glue and leaves a variety of random frost-like patterns in the fractured glass surface. Her newest endeavor is experimenting with translucent European glass paints such as were used in old stained glass artworks; the paints allow her to add vibrant color to her art pieces.
In the beginning, all her work was in Pagosa Springs — a mix of residential and commercial projects. Gradually, her market widened: Telluride, Vail, Aspen, Breckenridge. She then added a certification in interior decorating to her resume, and began working with her clients on whole room design concepts.
”Say it was a remodel. My clients and I would look at the room as a complete concept with a theme. This was great, because then we would pick the colors and the direction — creating a whole ‘feel’ for that room. Say I was etching an aspen tree on the shower door in their master bath, then I’d etch delicate little aspen leaves on the mirrors, or hand paint the branches and extend them onto the wall. And we’d pick a sage green that matched the aspen leaf color, paint the walls and pull the look all together. I’d start with their ideas for glass projects, and then we’d take off from there.”
We joked about the fact that many of the commercial jobs she did here in Pagosa over the past ten years were for enterprises that have since gone out of business: Montezuma’s Vinyard restaurant, the Fun Place Bowling Alley, the Rendezvous Restaurant, and Cass’ Coyote Club.
“I do not assume responsibility for those businesses failing. I was just the decorator,” she laughs. Many of the businesses where her glass is displayed still thrive, however: Jackish Drug’s front doors, Wells Fargo’s safety deposit door, Barbara Blackburn’s Business Bureau, First Bank of the Southwest, Pope John Paul II Catholic Church — plus the hundred-plus homes here in Pagosa that show off her creativity.
I asked Cass to think back on her university education. Had the professors and students ever talked about the difference between a “starving artist” and a “successful artist”?
“The truth is, that no one talks about art as a business. They talk about ‘art for art’s sake.’ And they teach you how to paint, about composition and color theory. But they don’t teach you how to get your work into a gallery; they don’t tell you how to market yourself, or how to organize and run a business. There’s none of that.
“If I hadn’t had my little dance with timeshare and real estate sales, I would have never been equipped to sell myself as an artist. You get lots of sales training. I had to learn to ask for the sale, I had to ask for the business. I had to find their problem, and find the solution — and then be the solution. I still do that.
“So all those acquired communication skills, and gifts of being positive and energetic, being able to find out what they want and need, and being persuasive — that’s all part of selling myself and my art.”
Though she does advertise, many of Cass’ projects are obtained through referrals, and as repeat orders from existing clients — and friends of clients.
“Knowing that my goal is to exceed my client’s expectations — to really please them and to make their home a more beautiful place — and then having them in turn appreciating the art that I have created for them, and calling me back or referring me to their friends — that has been a unique experience for me,” she explains, contrasting it to her years of real estate and timeshare sales. “It just confirms that I am doing the right thing. And that makes me very happy. I know that my success is because I am selling something I am creating myself. No one else is doing the work. I love being an artist, and I think that makes all the difference.” |