Candace bradbury-carlin

I love the unexpected in making art... 

The discovery of textures, and how to combine them. The form I think a material will take, until it takes an altogether different form. The strange - or quite ordinary - object I stumble across, pick up, ponder, and forget about...then rediscover.

It is crucial for me to use materials that might normally be discarded. The overlooked, the orphaned, the flung bits - these are my materials. What humbly crosses my path. I try not to work with the new, but rather what is around me, used but unsung.

I like the idea of a gentle interference. Of capturing a gesture that feels like a natural alternate destiny of a material. I am always looking for the meeting point of the minimal and the organic; taking formal cues from water, calligraphy, haiku, and dance. Some of the subjects that inform my work are conservation, food ecology, and Eastern philosophy.

About the Artist

I came to art as a child, and my career has evolved from sandcastle engineer to landscape designer to book artist to graphic designer to curator and artist. My free time is increasingly spent in my studio making collage and sculpture with the abundance of orphaned objects that I have adopted. I received my BA in Environmental Design from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. I have exhibited nationally and have curated solo and group exhibits. I also teach art classes at various schools, libraries, and community art centers. 

Exhibitions

2022
Re-Arrangements
Tilton Library
South Deerfield, MA

2020
Pushing the Envelope
Pulp Gallery
Holyoke, MA

2018
Paper Jam
Great Falls Discovery Center
Turners Falls, MA

Dirt & Sole
Elms College
Chicopee, MA

2016

Take A Seat
University Museum of
Contemporary Art
Amherst, MA

2015

Microworks
A.P.E. Gallery
Northampton

Black & White & Red
Deerfield Arts Bank
Deerfield, MA

Trash to Treasure
Great Falls Discovery Center
Turners Falls, MA

2014

First Open Juried Show
Gallery A3
Amherst, MA

Close to Home
Deerfield Arts Bank
Deerfield, MA

2013

Nouveau Brut
Beckett Arts Center
Beckett, MA

2012    

Ecologies of Food: Past and Present
Lederer Gallery
SUNY Geneseo, NY

The Medium is the Message:
Worcester Windows
City of Worcester Public Art Program
60 Franklin Street, Worcester

A Novel Idea 
Hampden Gallery
University of Massachusetts
Amherst, MA, Group Show

2011

Art From Detritus 
WAH Gallery
Brooklyn, NY, Group Show

2010    

HERE 
A.P.E. Gallery
Northampton, MA,
Curator