Rhythms of Attention | Cassie McGettigan
- withitgirl
- May 13
- 6 min read
Updated: May 14
Cassie McGettigan is a textile artist, educator, and mother based in California. Her path through art, entrepreneurship, and education has been anything but linear — and that’s part of what makes her story so compelling. In 2008, she co-founded Gravel & Gold, a design collective and shop in San Francisco’s Mission District, and in 2018 she earned her MFA in Textiles from the Rhode Island School of Design.
Cassie's work is deeply rooted in both historical textile traditions and the lived experiences that shape her daily life, from motherhood to community-building. With a love for found materials, bold prints, and layered metaphors, her quilts and textiles embody both precision and playful divergence. In this conversation, Cassie shares reflections on her upbringing, the artists who inspire her, the evolving themes in her work, and the lessons learned through collaboration and collective creativity.
Cassie, share a bit about your background, including your upbringing, family, education, and any childhood experiences that influenced or inspired your work.
I grew up in a DC suburb in the 90s: sporty brother upstairs, me in the basement behind the StairMaster with my Tori Amos tapes and art supplies. My mom volunteered at a thrift store and I would tag along with her. Cherry picking the donation piles was really my first education in textiles and handwork–noticing construction details, materials, and design choices. I remember finding a Marimekko shift dress and being struck by the bold print and the metal snaps at the shoulders. My mom was like, "of course, Design Research. That’s the good stuff."
My path after high school took some turns. I started at UC Santa Cruz and eventually graduated from the University of Virginia with a degree in Religious Studies. After college, I moved to San Francisco with no plan for a job-job. I worked several wage-jobs and interned at Mother Jones. Then in 2008, my friends and I started Gravel & Gold, a design collective and shop in the Mission.
It took until my mid-30s to recognize textiles as my core passion and to go get formally trained.
Are there any other artists who have inspired you, and what aspects of their work influence your own?
As a print designer, I am inspired by historical textile traditions, especially the trajectory of Indian chintz, which altered and absorbed cultures wherever its influence traveled. Rebecca Solnit distilled the colonial problem chintz poses in Orwell's Roses, but I continue to value its potency. The Austrian designer Josef Frank was also a fan. His work for Svenskt Tenn in the 1940s and 50s–designs like Hawaii and Himalaya with their vibrant colors and fantastical botanical elements–read like unhinged homages to the chintz form.
And Marimekko–always, always. First, for their supersized, clearly handmade prints that seem to shout out joy and liberation. And also for their open-ended approach as a company. You can buy their fabric, or you can buy a dress they produce in their fabric, or you can buy the pattern for the dress and make it yourself, or do whatever you want with the materials. This was our lodestar at Gravel & Gold.
Outside the print realm, I’m turned on by artists like Alan Shields and Ree Morton whose work exists between categories. And I'm inspired by traditional quilters who made functional objects for their families with extreme consideration.
Are there any particular themes you've been focusing on in your work? Explain your method and share an example.
Textiles ooze HEAVY METAPHORS, but here goes:
My work represents rhythms of attention—how in moments of quiet, I notice the way my thoughts cycle through patterns that give me a sense of comfort and order, but can then feel redundant and confining, so I go down a different rabbit hole, open up, then wander again.
A repeating print design locks a pattern into place and mine are therefore usually more declarative. But my quilted pieces allow for more ambiguity by incorporating diversions into a larger coherence. They show affinity to patterns without getting too attached to any single story they might tell.
So, I’ll give you an example. Postpartum began with a chintz fabric–a shiny black floral from the 1980s that was itself an interpretation of an 18th-century design from the Musée des Arts Décoratifs. I found a roll of it at a thrift store in Connecticut shortly after I had my daughter and it seemed like it was yelling at me: You are a mom now. THIS is your world now. Oh but the flowers were so lewd, the ribbons ridiculous, the background utterly ominous! I took pleasure in slicing it all up. When I put it back together, I wanted to maintain a first read that the pattern was undisturbed, its gestures spontaneous. But looking closer, you’ll notice many deviations, approximations, and dead ends in the pattern. And the gestures that seem spontaneous and solid, like the sinuous lines of the ribbons, are composed of many considered fragments, involving lots of labor and uncertainty. All this seems to describe how I make sense of my experiences, especially motherhood.
What is your studio practice ?
My practice comes down to setting up limitations then breaking them. I feel supported in this by Sister Corita Kent’s "Immaculate College Art Department Rules." The final line is, "There should be new rules next week."
I often begin with a fabric that has some inherent tension or complexity that I want to explore. Working with found materials connects me to textile history and adds layers of meaning from the get-go. I don’t often sketch out a plan; I do something then respond.
Since having my daughter and moving out to Bolinas, I work in shorter bursts out of a bedroom in our house. I've found that having a dedicated space, even if I can't be there consistently, helps maintain momentum in my practice. I look forward to getting back into a big, filthy printing studio one day. But in the meantime, I’ve adapted toward sewing and I’m down with that.
I’m addicted to audiobooks–the longer, the better.
I've also enjoyed teaching workshops, exhibiting, and organizing projects in my community. I love creating spaces where people can learn techniques and connect with each other through making.
What was your experience collaborating with friends at Gravel & Gold?
Gravel & Gold was founded by Lisa Foti-Straus, a filmmaker, Nile Nash, a midwifery student, and me–a writer? None of us knew how to run a business, design textiles, or produce goods at scale. But we were sincere admirers of the Bay Area artistic lineage, especially the world of The Diggers and Native Funk & Flash. We learned on the job. And so many incredible people came forward to work with us–going slow, explaining processes, and guiding us. We weren’t trying to invent everything; we were trying to contribute to an ongoing cultural conversation.
Looking back, I see how the collective foundation gave me the confidence to pursue my own path. Even though I passed my share of the business torch years ago, the lessons from that time–about learning through doing, embracing imperfection, and respecting creative traditions while making them your own–continue to shape my practice today.
Anything else?
I just read an amazing novel called Thread Ripper by Amalie Smith that captures what it's like to have a mind that's always thinking about textiles.
Cassie's shares her listening favorites for Withitgirl !
Podcasts
- Fashion Neurosis
- Seamside
- Articles of Interest
- Björk: Sonic Symbolism
- Death of an Artist
Audiobooks
-The Living Mountain by Nan Shepherd. Read by Tilda Swinton.
- All of Anne Truitt's journals, read by the author, beginning with Daybook: The Journey of an Artist.
- Matrix by Lauren Groff. Read by Adjoa Andoh.
- Matrescence by Lucy Jones. Read by the author.
- Possession by A.S. Byatt. Narrated by Virginia Leishman.
- Letters to Gwen John by Celia Paul. Read by Rachel Bavidge
Additional Information
Website: https://casswebsite.org/
All photos courtesy of Cassie, additional photos : @sibila_savage, @lisafotistraus
Photos from Funk & Flash repurposed from the web
Cassie’s work is included in Lena Corwin's current book, CLOTH 100 Artists, released April 29, 2025, Cover weaving by Brent Wadden @_bbww_
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