Cassie McFarland

Cassie Maeve McFarland (born October 4, 1985) is an American graphic artist based out of California. She is best known as the creator of the winning design for the common obverse of the 2014 commemorative coins celebrating the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

Biography Cassie McFarland grew up in the historic railroad town of Roseville. Her parents are Robert and Wendy McFarland.

Education She attended California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo, CA, earning a Bachelor of Fine Arts, Studio Art and Design degree in 2008.

Works and awards Cassie McFarland works in the fields of figurative painting and photography. There is a strong narrative tendency to her work, shaped by personal nostalgia and the grandeur and sweep of the American landscape.

While attending Cal Poly, she received the following awards: Studio Arts Concentration Award, Annual Award for Junior Standing, Department of Art & Design Cal Poly Arts Award Studio Art Scholarship, Annual Award for Graduating Students, Department of Art & Design

She has also used her art training to improve the mental and physical health of the elderly by assisting with the art therapy portion of a respite day program that specializes in multi-sensory activities, with an emphasis on developmental communication.

Based out of San Luis Obispo, Ms. McFarland maintains strong ties to the local arts communities. This includes working with a small group of other local San Luis Obispo artists as part of a professional collective called Yoke. The group seeks to make the visual and performing arts an even more active presence within their community. Yoke also facilitates collaboration between its members while helping to produce and exhibit each artist's work individually.

2014 National Baseball Hall of Fame Commemorative Coin Final design of the 2014 National Baseball Hall of Fame commemorative coin.On September 4, 2013, the United States Department of the Treasury selected her design as the winning entry in the 2014 National Baseball Hall of Fame commemorative coin competition, which ran from April 11 to 11 May of that year.

The contest was authorized by the 2014 National Baseball Hall of Fame Commemorative Coin Act (Public Law 112-152), signed into law by President Barack Obama on August 3, 2013. All told, the Treasury Department received 178 original entries - including McFarland's, which she submitted on the last day of the contest (11 May) after having happened across the competition online while researching another art project involving Shell gas station tokens. The finalists were then reviewed by the United States Commission of Fine Arts, the Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee, and the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum. Acting Director of the Mint Richard Peterson then culled together the preceding reviews and comments before making a final recommendation to Treasury Secretary Jacob "Jack" Lew. The Mint announced McFarland's design as the winner on its website on October 8, 2013

Design The "well-loved" glove that served as a model for Cassie McFarland's design.Cassie McFarland's winning design, entitled "A Hand Full of Gold", was modeled on a time-worn, "well-loved" baseball glove that had been in her family since she was a young girl.

Specifically, the law calls for a coin produced "in a fashion similar to the 2009 International Year of Astronomy coins issued by Monnaie de Paris, the French Mint, so that the reverse of the coin is convex to more closely resemble a baseball and the obverse concave, providing a more dramatic display of the obverse design chosen pursuant to section 4(c)."