I am Kasandra Mejia, an artist striving to become a greater person and artist each day.
I grew up in Bakersfield, CA. I graduated from Bakersfield College in 2021 and transferred to CSU Long Beach with an associates degree in Studio Arts and Art History. I then moved to Stockton, CA in 2024 where I finished my education at the University of the Pacific in 2025. My dream job has always been to become an art educator for high school students while working on my own art. I truly want to help future students to achieve their dreams within the art community. Being able to help those students can allow me to repay my former art teachers who have helped me pursue my dream in the arts. Teaching students art, the history, and the importance it has to our daily lives can allow many potential art students to further their interest in the arts and eventually expand the art community. Being able to be a part of the art community can allow me to improve myself as an artist but to also give me a chance to help future art students to use art as a form of expression through the use of traditional and modern methods. There has been a debate between educating students through traditional methods versus allowing them to cultivate their creativity. I want to be able to blur the line between traditional and creativity and allow students to be able to create art using traditional methods while using their creativity. Thank you for taking the time to learn a bit about me, my art, and my goals. I truly appreciate you for supporting my art and myself as an artist.
starting_finish.pdf is featured in the "Made You Look" exhibition in the University of the Pacific at the Reynolds gallery from April 7th to May 9th.
This series of work derives from my previous junior exhibition series that features the twelve autistic traits in women. For this series, I wanted to primarily focus on my childhood and create a chronological timeline based on my core memories. The first five years of my life have been very difficult and traumatic as a child; yet, it is still a contributing factor of who I have become as an adult and the person who I strive to be. This series continues to be reflections of myself and each work features an autistic trait that was undetected to the people in my life. Despite all the experiences I went through as a neurodivergent individual, I am now at the starting line with the mindset of reaching far beyond the finish line of the hurdles and obstacles in life.
First Memory
Acrylic on Canvas
(30 in by 40 in)
Carrying these heavy traumatic memories at such a young age, I became Atlas and now it is time to let it fall into place and free myself from the burden of it all
Abandonment
Crochet with Yarn
(30 in by 30 in)
What Demeter did for Persephone, was what should have been done for me, yet you put Pasiphae to shame as the severed connection between us remains to leave the rest of me unraveled
Tainted Child
Interactive Installation Piece
(19 in by 14 in)
Covered with the stains of your disgrace and sins, tainting me as only streaks of skin peeked through, I peeled it off and tossed you aside becoming the child of Artemis instead
Maladaptive Dreaming
Pastel and Charcoal on Drawing Paper
(24 in by 18 in)
Morpheus breaths in and released his fellow friends to dance and sing and play among my mind as a play-wright sets his characters to the stage
Distortion
Pastel on Paper
(9 in by 12 in)
I strive for the day that Eris puts herself to rest, for her turmoil has consumed my mind and the antidote of Apollo's lyre cannot defeat her as it once did
Adjust
Pastel on Pastel Paper
(9 in by 12in)
Oh, to be like the nymphs playing carelessly and free, I must endure being the Echo of your voice and never my own
Girl in the Mirror
Acrylic on Canvas
(30 in by 40 in)
I am configured by Aphrodite yet cannot seem to see beyond the veil of doubt that my mind has created, based on the eyes of many and the voice of all
Overachiever
Oil on Wood
(9 in by 12 in)
Day upon day and night upon night, I have endured once and half the twelve years of labor that Hercules beat, and time and time again I have shown my worth, but I fear it will never be enough
Janis Vu
Oil on Wood
(9 in by 12 in)
I must be the only one that the Oracle nor the Fates cannot foresee; I supposed I shall dictate the thread of my life
Heed
Ceramic Installation
(12 in by 10 in)
As a sapling is vulnerable to the harsh elements of life, I forced myself to grow shards of weathered bark that is carved into by the hands of others
Full Book Cover Design for "I'll Give You The Sun" by Jandy Nelson- Student work of 2024
Includes Front, Back, and Spine of the accurate dimensions of the book
Student Work of Packaging System for Unicorn Eclipse
(Only for student work purposes)
Includes Folder, Bumper Sticker, Business Card, Sales Sheet, Folder, and Post card
Student Work of Packaging System for Unicorn Eclipse
(Only for student work purposes)
Includes Folder, Bumper Sticker, Business Card, Sales Sheet, Folder, and Post card