Rotto Grotto

rotto: latin, ruptus: broken.

grotto: an artificial cave, especially devoted to some saint, holy person, or deity, as an altar, chapel, church, or temple.

Becca Kacanda was born and raised in Queens, NY and earned a BFA from The School of Visual Arts in New York City before relocating to the midwest. She is currently enrolled in the Graduate Art Therapy program at Mount Mary University in Milwaukee, WI and is passionate about exploring the intersections of creativity and mental health.

About her art work:  Inspired by both the transcendent beauty found in the decay and rebirth of the ever-changing concrete streetscapes of NYC and the rich legacy of spiritual grottoes and otherworldly folk environments in the upper midwest, her current body of textured and embedded sculptural works explores the idea of the ultraterrestrial object – a non human entity of natural or supernatural origin that is indigenous to earth. Her current method uses bottles or fiberglass shrines covered in mortar and generously layered with common objects such as shells, rocks, coins, and tiles. The sculptures appear as mysterious shell-encrusted anthropomorphic figures, mystic sacred vessels, and unorthodox shrines. In addition to her personal practice she generously shares her knowledge through a variety of hands-on workshops and community engaged projects, participates in craft shows and is generally passionate about the power and magic of beautiful objects.