Candy Nichols builds underglazed and fired clay sculptures using slab and coil methods, and a fettling knife to achieve the woven textures. She finds inspiration in African art, particularly the Bolga basket weavers of northern Ghana.
The basketweaver Dot-So-La-Lee (Louisa Keyser) also had a profound effect on Candy's aesthetic.
Other artistic influences include Constantin Brâncuși, Henry Moore, and the painter J. M.W. Turner. Candy's pottery embodies a personal and feminist aesthetic of the yarn crafters in her family, and her work is a homage to their legacy.
The best advice Candy ever received came from a fortune cookie: Do Not Fear Failure. "Perfectionism" is not a word in her vocabulary.
Candy believes the clay should show the mark of hands. Mistakes add to the art if you welcome and play with them, recognizing happy accidents.
Always feel free to fail. Many pieces are not fired and return to the bag of raw clay, but many more are finished. Making sculpture is an adventure full of surprises.
Candy's husband, David, is a photographer who documents the inspiration behind these sculptures. On road trips together, he is kind enough to do all the driving so that Candy can focus on sketching land formations.
The Cliffs
Not just appearance
of cliffs,
it was shadows
and light
illuminating every
crevice, changing
each moment, new
patterns of contrast
forming in the rock
and eternal dust.
