"My experiences as a fashion designer have instilled in me a love of pattern and an obsession with surface. My work has been shown as sculpture yet it is mostly drawn from the fiber medium (excepting video and fabricated pieces). The pieces are often sewn, embroidered, perforated, constructed, worn and inhabited in a zone between fashion, fiber and performance. As an educator I am passionate about the interconnectedness of design and it’s ability to impact the daily lives of all people in a living community."
Kristin Caskey received her B.S.S. in Fine Arts from Cornell College, Mt Vernon, IA; her B.F.A. in Fashion Design from Parsons School of Design, NYC, NY, where she won the coveted Designer of the Year award; and her M.F.A. in Print/Media from the Cranbrook Academy of Art, Bloomfield Hills, MI. In 1997, she was appointed Assistant Professor in the Department of Fashion Design and Merchandising at VCU, and was promoted to Associate Professor in 2003. Prior to her appointment at VCU, Caskey taught at McPherson College, McPherson, KS, and St. Cloud State University, St. Cloud, MN.
From 1987-1992, Caskey worked as the designer of Arlequin Paris, Perry Ellis America, and was Associate Designer for Urban Outfitters’ Anthropologie, Free People and Cooperative lines in Philadelphia PA. Caskey has participated in numerous exhibitions throughout the Midwest and Mid- Atlantic regions. Her work has also been featured at the Adger Art Center in Kristiansand, Norway, the Westergasfabriek in Amsterdam, NL, Keepers of the Waters in Chengdu, China, the Urban Institute of Contemporary Arts in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and the Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Caskey’s work has been reviewed in Art Papers, Sculpture magazine and numerous newspapers.
From 2009 to the present Caskey has worked in consultancy with industry partners as a consulting designer, creating textile print design, color stories, fabric and line concepts, and technical design specifications for Heartfelt LLC, NYC, NY and Rockin Baby Slings, Richmond, VA.
In 2010 Professor Caskey won the Queen Sirikit Institute for Sericulture Competition in Bangkok, Thailand and the ATEX INC Award for Excellence in Marketable Textile Design at the ITAA International Design Competition in Montreal, Canada.