Meet Company Founder, Cassidy Sargent!

Early Life

Born and raised in the Green Mountains of Vermont, Cassidy has had an affinity for adventure, creative expression, humility, nature, and culture since she was just a small girl.

From the age of a toddler and into her late adolescence, Cassidy spent much of her time traveling with her folks and younger sister, Jessa, across the entirety of the country. By the age of eight she had seen roughly forty-five of the fifty states as the family roamed like gypsies along the country’s backroads and highways in an old, teal VW van.

Home life was quaint and simple, with chickens roaming the land that both of their parents worked so diligently to build upon. The family had a huge vegetable garden that the girls’ mother, Nancy grew each year with the help of her daughters. Their father, Matthew, built their homestead from the ground up - starting with a one-room cabin that served as their home for the first year-and-a-half of the girls’ lives. The cabin held no electricity or running water, and was heated by a wood stove.

The necessity for artistic narration has always been consistent in Cassidy’s life; from waking up at early dawn as a two-year-old to draw images in the dim quiet of the house… to traveling up through all of Central America as a means of painting murals along her route… she has never halted her mission to produce art work for the world to see.

Young Adulthood

Graduating from high school the youngest in her class, Cassidy considered what it might look like to take a year off before diving into University… but, from age four she knew exactly what she wanted to pursue and decided it best to shoot for the stars.

Ate age seventeen, Cassidy began her Freshman year at the University of Vermont - never wavering in her goal to graduate with a Bachelor’s of Arts & Sciences, mastering in English and Studio Art. If the school had offered a Masters of Creative Writing, that would have been been her ultimate choice - so she took what she could from the elective courses and came out feeling extremely fulfilled with her University experience. She found ways to specialize in analytic and philosophic essay writing (on topics such as The Beat Generation and jazz in literature) as well as screen printing and painting.

Following graduation, she spent the next two years working diligently to save up for the biggest trip of her lifetime, thus far - a voyage that lasted seven months and spanned from Panama City, Panama all the way north to Cancun, Mexico. With the accompaniment of her partner at the time, the two of them rode chicken buses and navigated dangerous border crossings just to be able to paint murals in Panama, Costa Rica, and Guatemala. This series of murals, entitled The Bee Series: Keeping the Bee Alive Through Art was a grand pursuit to paint the image of the bee around a region of the world known for hosting many travelers; the focus was to encourage conversation involving the endangerment of bees and invite discussion surrounding what we can do to help with this environmental issue.

As the trip was nearing its final month, Cassidy found herself driven to create a proper company and artist portfolio - one that, at first, solely involved murals and acrylic work. And so, Dama Astuta Designs was born.

The Birth of Dama {spanish “lady”} Astuta {“foxy” or “sly”} Designs

Nestled deep in the rural mountains of Lanquin, Guatemala, Cassidy began putting feelers out for local mural projects back in Vermont; she wanted to ensure that work would be waiting for her upon her return.

In looking for short-term painting jobs, she came across an ad for a mural application to paint the storefront of Green State Gardener, a local supply store for hemp farmers. The application required that each artist supply their website domain, as well as an artist/company name - something that Cassidy had not yet considered.

It was in this moment that the young, female artist was faced with a question that artists of all ages face - am I a real artist? Do I even have anything that separates me from the rest of them? And the answer came to her so clearly - yes. In fact, you are something so special that the world is just waiting to see you unfold.

And just like that… the name Dama Astuta Designs arrived with no hesitation. Foxy Lady Designs. There was no need to hide her authenticity from the world just to fit in. She was a foxy lady, ready to take on the world - one painting at a time. She was fierce. Independent. Cultured. Integrative. Unique in her connection to empathy. Self-styled and full of flare. She was finally embodying the foxy lady that was there all along.

The Development of Dama Astuta Designs

From 2017 to 2020, Dama Astuta Designs was a scattered work-in-progress. Cassidy found several obstacles getting in her way - the biggest one being that she was becoming more and more drawn towards exploring logo design, but was performing these projects by hand, which only delivered a certain level of professionalism to her clients. One day, a friend suggested to her that she delve into investing in some simple software that could allow for her to produce at a faster rate with refined detail.

In 2020, at the peak of Covid, Cassidy took what little money she had saved up before the pandemic hit and bought herself her first iPad, accompanied by Procreate and Adobe Illustrator.

And she dove in…

For nearly three years now, the young professional has been devouring all the material she can regarding graphic design, brand strategy, and business development. Her production rate is fast and her clients are ALWAYS happy!