Cassidy Santos works between painting and photography. Her recent camera-less works combine intuitive mark-making with deliberate composition through a process that moves between the darkroom and the studio. Many works begin as gestural paintings made with photographic chemicals on light-sensitive paper. These fragments are then layered with materials from the studio, including ceramic sculptures, dyed fabrics, and works on paper, and arranged on a scanner bed.

The scanner becomes an active collaborator, producing images that capture specific moments in the making. Santos describes this process as painting with objects or drawing with paintings. Through these compositions, everyday objects and abstract forms interact, activating one another while reflecting on representation, materiality, and the evolving ecology of the studio.