ARTIST BIOGRAPHY/STATEMENT

According to family legend, when Virginia Sassaman was a toddler, her mother heard the little girl making noises in her crib, and came running to see what was wrong. Nothing at all. Ginny was rocking back and forth, crooning, "Happy, happy, happy…"

Indeed, as an adult, it has always been one of Ginny’s goals to try and make this world a little bit happier. For years, that meant working for public television and public interest groups as a writer. But her true calling became clear when Ginny took her first studio art class with her then 13 year-old son in a class for 10 to 16 year-olds. "I asked the art league to put him in the adult class with me, but they said, no, we’ll put you in the kids’ class with him," she recollects. "It turned out to be the perfect way to begin, because the atmosphere was so relaxed and supportive. And, because I learned immediately that I had a real facility with watercolors, that class changed my life."

When both her children were grown, Ginny began working as a fulltime artist and craftsperson, painting vivid watercolors with upbeat themes. "When I read that the role of artists is to advance societal issues, I just laugh and say, well, not this artist!" she says. "But I do believe my life’s mission right now is to help make people slightly happier through my painting, and I take this calling very seriously. Life is rough. We all need more smiles."

Sassaman admits to being a very messy painter . Fortunately, since moving to a converted barn outside Montpelier, Vermont, she has a spacious, light-filled studio where she can, and does, paint freely on a wide variety of watercolors – 2-D paintings (see gallery), clocks, interactive shadow boxes, pins, earrings, and, her newest product,
wine glass markers.

(photo of her studio floor)

Sassaman graduated summa cum laude with a BA in Humanities from Pennsylvania State University, and has taken studio art classes at the Alexandria Art League, American University, and Washington Studio School. Together with Bob Sassaman, her husband and partner for 35 years, she lives, works and plays in a strong, picturesque Vermont community – when she is not on the road exhibiting at craft fairs (15 to 18 shows annually). Her fine art is in private collections in Los Angeles, Brooklyn, Princeton, and Columbia (MD). Other Sass Watercolor products can be found locally in Artisan’s Hand Gallery (Montpelier, VT), Blinking Light Gallery (Plainfield, VT) and, nationally, anyplace that’s cool enough to have an Art-o-Matic vending machine.

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