About

Jeanne Cassanova is a New Orleans–born artist and educator whose multidisciplinary practice spans painting, drawing, collage, and installation. Rooted in the sensory richness of her upbringing in South Louisiana, her work reflects a deep engagement with memory, color, and the ephemeral qualities of lived experience.

Cassanova earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Painting and Digital Media from the University of New Orleans in 2004, followed by a Master of Fine Arts in Painting and Drawing from the University of Houston in 2008. Her academic training laid the foundation for a practice that moves fluidly between traditional and experimental approaches, merging technical rigor with an intuitive, exploratory sensibility.

Working across media, Cassanova creates layered, immersive compositions that often blur the boundaries between representation and abstraction. Her paintings and mixed media works are characterized by vibrant color, rich surface textures, and symbolic imagery that evoke the fleeting nature of dreams, memory, and perception. Drawing inspiration from the visual and cultural landscape of New Orleans, her work frequently explores themes of transformation, resilience, and the poetic tension between presence and disappearance.

In addition to her studio practice, Cassanova is a dedicated educator whose teaching emphasizes creative thinking, visual literacy, and the development of an individual artistic voice. She encourages students not only to master technique, but to cultivate perception, to “see and think like an artist,” fostering a deeper, more personal engagement with the creative process.

Cassanova has been painting and studying art for over two decades, continually evolving her practice while maintaining a strong connection to her roots in New Orleans. Her work often incorporates elements such as bold color relationships, layered materials, and occasionally gold leaf, contributing to a distinctive visual language that is both expressive and immersive.

Through both her artwork and her teaching, Jeanne Cassanova invites viewers and students alike into a luminous, intuitive space - one where meaning is felt as much as it is seen, and where the act of creation becomes a way of holding onto what is otherwise fleeting.