Born and raised in the New Orleans area, Cassanova has spent much of her life submerged in environments with deeply rich cultural experiences and exaggeratedly exuberant visual heritages. Her childhood was steeped in an odd conglomeration of the excess of Mardi Gras, the guilt of Catholic faith, the overindulgence of an Italian family, the richness of the French Quarter, and the awareness of fragility every hurricane season. All of these elements swirled together and are now very apparent in the work Cassanova creates in which she regurgitates much of the overwhelming daily experiences in life in order to recreate her own definitions of personal culture and beauty. Cassanova received her Bachelor of Arts degree with a focus in both Painting and New Media from the University of New Orleans in 2004, after which she was accepted into the Graduate Painting program at the University of Houston where she is currently studying and will receive her M.F.A. in 2008.