Jen Casad made drawings of mostly nature scenes as a child. But once she became a commercial fisherman, she realized the connection between fishing and nature is strong — inspiring her to create intricate pencil drawings of Maine’s working waterfront.
Now Casad and her 12-year-old daughter Elizabeth, who’s also an artist, are going to show their work at Rockland event space and gallery Badhus Co in May.
Jen is a first-generation Mainer, born in Damariscotta. Members of her family were fishermen out west, but she is the first in her family to fish on the East Coast. Before she had Elizabeth, Jen took inspiration from her daily routine of clamming in Bristol to recreate images of Maine’s coast.
Jen had an exhibition at Alexandre Gallery in New York and was the subject of a film called “Double Tide” before she became a mother. But Elizabeth was born with Celiac disease, which causes an extreme sensitivity to gluten. As a single mother and clammer who has to cook special food for her daughter, Jen said making professional art fell to the back-burner for years.
“I mean, I’m a full-time single parent,” Jen said. “You don’t get to take the winter off and draw.”
But when her long-time friend and CEO of Badhus Co, Sally Levi, called and asked Jen and Elizabeth to show their work there, Jen said she was finally given the push to start making art professionally again.
Jen draws her inspiration from realism, Maine’s working waterfront and her daughter, while Elizabeth said she takes a more fantasy-like approach to her paintings and drawings, finding inspiration in horses and her favorite cartoons, such as She-Ra.
“Growing up around horses, I love unicorns and horses and those things,” Elizabeth said.
Elizabeth sometimes helps her mom clamming — though she said she likes quahogging more — but when she grows up, she said she wants to be a singer and keep doing art. She said she’s inspired by her mom, who she called a “warrior woman.”
Now that the duo is showing some of their work at Badhus Co, Jen said she hopes they’ll be able to continue their art and do more exhibitions together in the future.
“It makes us feel whole,” Jen said.
The exhibition at Badhus Co will open on May 3 in Rockland, with an event celebrating the opening from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. that day.