Becca Kacanda

About

rotto: latin, ruptus: broken.

grotto: a natural or artificial cave, especially devoted to some saint, holy person, or deity, as an altar, chapel, church, or temple.

Becca Kacanda was born and raised in Queens, NY and Central Florida and earned a BFA from The School of Visual Arts in New York City before relocating to the midwest. She is a recent graduate of the Masters in Art Therapy and Counseling program at Mount Mary University in Milwaukee, WI and is passionate about exploring the intersections of creativity, artist identity, mental health and improving the health and wellness of diverse communities. She also currently serves as a coordinator for Psychedelic Lived Experiences, a patient-led initiative advancing lived experience expertise in psychedelic research, treatment, and policy.

About her art work:  Inspired by both the transcendent beauty found in the decay and rebirth of the ever-changing concrete streetscapes of NYC and the rich legacy of spiritual grottoes and otherworldly folk environments in the upper midwest and beyond, her current body of textured and embedded sculptural works explores the idea of the ultraterrestrial object - a non human entity of natural or supernatural origin that is indigenous to earth. Her current method uses bottles, lighter cases, found objects or modern technology such as iphones and earpod cases, which are covered in mortar or clay and generously layered with objects such as shells, rocks, coins, and tiles. The sculptures appear as mysterious shell-encrusted anthropomorphic figures, enchanting vessels, unorthodox shrines, or advanced technology dug out of the mythical earth. In addition to her personal practice she generously shares her knowledge through a variety of hands-on workshops, art therapy open studios, community engaged projects, participates in craft shows and is generally passionate about the power and magic of beautiful objects.

Some recent press: