You know sometimes I love a piece of artwork so much I wanna wear it. Like all day, every day. This month’s Featured Artist, Candace Fasano has oodles of lovely new work, but this particular piece, Bird Pod, just keeps speaking to me. Alas, the painting is sold ( lucky duck, whoever you are! ), but that won’t stop me from dreaming about it!
jewelry | from top: Branch Bangle, Fan Ring, Geo Colour Bangle by Anthony Roussel
Don’t these sculpted pieces by jewelry artist Anthony Roussel remind you of Bird Pod? That same organic, cosmic magic could still be mine. Oh yes it could!
I just love it when an artist seems to take a bit of a break for a while and then BOOM!, comes back strong! Such seems to have been the case with Florida artist Candace Fasano, this month’s Featured Artist.
Double Exposure, oil on wood, 24×24
Long time Artsy Forager readers might remember Candace’s work from way back in July ’11 ( where have the past two years gone?? ). Over the past few years, I would occasionally glimpse a post on her blog or Facebook page, but then just within the last few month, suddenly it seemed like this artist was back and she meant business! When I clicked on a blog post back in January, I was thrilled to see a bunch of new, exciting work looking back at me.
Alternating Phase, oil on wood, 12×12EG3, mixed media on wood, 12×12
Fasano is still playing with her imagination ( and ours ), delving even past narratives into the worlds of scientific mapping and microbiological patterns. There is still the typography and wispy lines that are part of her artist’s signature, but these new paintings seem to be an artist who has discovered new caves to explore and is diving deeper beneath the surface.
Double Etch Trenches, oil on wood, 11×14
I’m so excited to feature the work of Candace Fasano all August long here on Artsy Forager! Be sure to check out her website, blog, and Facebook page. You can see one of Candace’s paintings gracing the Artsy Forager Facebook page, too, as well as a whole album of my favorite Fasano works!
Candace Fasano is a painter and a poet. Where the paintings end and the poetry begins is not always distinctive. According to Wikipedia, “poetry primarily is governed by idiosyncratic forms and conventions to suggest differential interpretation to words, or to evoke emotive responses.” Substitute words for images and you’ve hit just the beginning of what makes Fasano’s work so interesting.
Topographical Remembering, mixed media on canvas, 48×48
Like poetry, Fasano’s paintings abound with symbolism and rhythm, their ambiguous nature often leaving them open to interpretation. Though they may have been created with a certain narrative in mind, the visual elements expressed are more suggestive than overt.
OMGGMO, oil on canvas, 96×72 diptych
Just as Candace the poet plays with words, Candace the painter plays with paint. Building up texture, leaving whispy washes of color and sketchy lines contrast with typographical verbiage.
Balancing Act, oil on canvas, 30×36
Layers of imagery create layers of meaning. Objects within the works are often rendered realistically, but are not necessarily resting in their reality. They may become transparent, weaving in and out of the composition like the ghostly marks left behind after an pencil eraser has done its work.
Warmth, oil on canvas, 66×56
imaginary landscapes attract
pictures from our collective mythologies.
text or fragments take hold like scaffolding
constructing and deconstructing
realities into temporary truths
revealing fragile limitations
of growth and decay –
viewed through a cardboard kaleidoscope
–c.fasano
To see more of Candace Fasano’s work and to read more of her poetry, visit her website and blog. If you like her work as much as I do, please fan her Facebook page to keep up with all her latest news. If you’re in the North Florida area, be sure to visit the Cummer Museum‘s “The Neighborhood As Art” show, which features one of Candance’s pieces.
