Candi McKay

CANDI MCKAY
RANSOM RECYCLES

VIRTUAL STUDIO TOUR

ransomrecycles.blogspot.com

Candi McKay was born and raised in Washington State and expanded her life experiences to include Arizona, California, Switzerland, and Oregon. She graduated from the University of Washington with a degree in art history supplementing her studies with art classes in textile design and ceramics. Throughout her life she has experimented with a variety of other media including pen and ink, acrylic painting, sculpture, printmaking, watercolor, beadwork, glass mosaics, and collage. She is a professional indexer of art history books, which affords her the luxury of joyfully gazing upon beautiful art every day.

Artist Statement
Art is expression and entertainment. It provides a much needed balance in a stressful world as well as a method of communicating one's innermost thoughts. It’s therapy soothing the soul with intellectual challenge and passionate escape. Without a creative outlet, there is a void. I am particularly fascinated by color and pattern and how these elements can be translated onto the surfaces of different media. I love to reduce, reuse, and recycle. Finding creative ways to use already existing and unwanted objects saves resources, money and the environment. My latest mission...Christmas!

I've never cared for Christmas and I know saying this aloud is sacrilegious to most. I find the holiday too sentimental with far too much focus on materialism. I enjoy the idea of Christmas cards, but I'm rarely impressed by the uninspired designs nor the standard, meaningless messages of sentimental harassment.

Collage enables me to re-create my own kind of card, to express my opinions, and twist current events into the holiday-related themes of materialism, gender equity, dietary indulgence, ecology, religion, and politics. All card designs are inspired by the people in my life. Some subjects are contentious and controversial while others are traditional and typical geared to fit the history and relationship I have with each recipient. I prefer the snarky. I like the unexpected which is what we rarely get with a Christmas card. I love art that screams an offensive message with sarcasm and makes me laugh.

Christmas now has a whole new meaning for me!