Candace Cates-Cavellier is an artist, art educator and landscape architect. She lives in Corrales and teaches Art at Bernalillo Elementary School. She holds several degrees from the University of New Mexico with a Masters in Art. Her art studies and teaching have taken her to France, Mexico, Italy, the Middle East and SE Asia where she lived and traveled for 4 years. Her Art work has won awards and been shown in galleries and exhibitions throughout the US including a piece in the permanent collection of the University of NM. Candace works in watercolor, pencil, mixed media and clay inspired by the enigmas of nature, light, joy and the magic found in the spaces in between.
Artist Statement
I came to New Mexico looking for bones and artifacts but ended up working with living things as inspiration for my art, teaching, and landscape architecture practice. I always meant to live on an island but here I still am in NM after 40 years. It is only natural that I live very close to the Rio and am surrounded by acequias-a desert island? I have been fortunate to explore a variety of interests and medias from painting to sculpture, ink, clay and collage, all inspired by the changing natural arena around me. I believe in art to comfort and heal through the creative process, whether for struggling students, self-challenges or landscape clients interested in healing gardens and contemplative spaces.
The Bay Series is not as recent but I feel that for others that are undergoing treatment these works would be a source of contemplative stillness-just stop the world for a second or two, occupy an empty chair and breathe.
