Kandy G. Lopez
is amazing! Who knew yarn could be so vibrant and human?
As Lopez contends in her artist statement, it is all about the people:
“As an Afro-Caribbean visual artist, I am eager to be challenged materialistically and metaphorically when representing marginalized individuals that inspire and move me. My works are created out of the necessity to learn something new about my people and culture. I am interested in developing a nostalgic dialogue between the artwork and the viewer. If I’m not learning from my materials and how it affects the message, it's not worth creating.”
Kandy G. Lopez was born in New Jersey and moved with her family to Florida. She received her BFA and BS from the University of South Florida, concentrating in Painting and in Marketing and Management. She received her MFA with a concentration in Painting from Florida Atlantic University in 2014. She has taught at Florida Atlantic University, Daytona State College, and is now teaching as an Associate Professor in the Department of Communication, Media and Arts at the Halmos College of Art & Sciences at NOVA Southeastern University.
Lamenting Niki 2023 (above)
Yarn and acrylic paint on mesh canvas
50 x 60 in
Quavia 2023 (left)
Yarn and acrylic paint on mesh canvas
60 x 50 in
Sue 2021
Yarn and acrylic on mesh canvas
96 x 48 in
From an interview with Lopez on WYNC:
“I started playing around in 2016. I made really small ones. I tell people all the time, things happen in the studio by accident but also on purpose, like there's happy accidents. I like to coin that from Bob Ross. A piece of string fell on one of my prints. I was collaging at that time, and instead of drawing in power lines because I was really interested in cityscapes of these neighborhoods that don't have the resources or eventually people come in and then they gentrify them.
The string fell, and I was like, "Oh, I could just make power lines with thread," and then that turned into, "Well, I could make people from thread to see what they look like." I left that alone for a while, and I went back to painting and then I got pregnant. I was like, "Well, I can't paint my gigantic oil paints of these people anymore, so I did dabble in thread. Let's see what that can look like." That was one of the mediums where I felt like it made sense because it's fibers, like fibers of our being. It's also soft. I'm making these people look or they are confident but also vulnerable at the same time. Those are the two things that I really enjoy about painting minorities because they have that in them.”
Lori Ann 2023
Yarn and spray paint on plastic canvas