On Thursday April 10, artist Chris Casey set up shop in Ramone’s Ice Cream Parlor in downtown Eau Claire. 

Originally from Georgia, Casey is a touring silhouette artist. Silhouettes are a type of portrait that capture a subject’s profile in all black. Casey described it as “drawing with scissors.”

Casey tours all over the world, but Ramone’s is one of his favorite stops, according to owner Blayne Midthun.

Midthun said Casey has been visiting since before COVID-19 and is the only artist who currently creates at Ramone’s.

Customers posed for portraits made with nothing but black paper and surgery scissors. 

“I create profile portraits of people and pets the same way that the French financial minister, Etienne de Silhouette did in the 18th-Century,” Casey said. “He did these as an inexpensive alternative to oil portraiture.”

According to the National Portrait Gallery, Silhouettes were named for Etienne de Silhouette, who was appointed by Louis XV to cut down on France’s expenses. 

Casey has been a touring silhouette artist for about seven years now. However, he said that growing up, he wanted to be a radiologist, not an artist. 

“I thought I was going to wear pajamas and take pictures of broken bones, but life is weird,” Casey said. “ When I graduated from x-ray school, I didn’t find a job in x-ray because in Northwest Georgia where I lived at the time, there were three x-ray schools within 50 miles. They have an abundance of free labor for the x-ray kids who have to do clinicals.”

Casey got into silhouettes from being an assistant to his father, Edward. He didn’t intend to follow in his footsteps but fell into helping him on the road.

 “I didn’t wind up getting a job that next week [after graduation],” Casey said. “For about two years, anytime there was a dog or a cat picture, [my dad] points the scissors at me.” 

His pet portraits were successful. So much in fact, that Casey’s father invited him on an upcoming tour around the South.

According to Casey, on this upcoming tour his father didn’t feel well when they went to pick up a car to travel to the different events.

“Dad had pneumonia. He wasn’t going on that trip. Mom wasn’t going without him. And rather than cancel the five or six or seven sold-out events, they made sure it was okay for me to go in his place, and everybody said okay,” Casey said.

Casey said he immediately enjoyed capturing the likeness of countless unique individuals using the silhouette form. 

“And now that I’ve been a silhouette artist for a few years,” Casey said, “I can’t imagine doing anything else.”

Holmes can be reached at [email protected].