To contact Candace Kreitlow,

send an e-mail to:

heartwood@tds.net

Candace Kreitlow Biography 

Whether beguiled by Nature's beauty or overcome by its impetuous power, I am drawn to its rhythms and patterns which abound, the contrasts by which they are defined, and the metaphors they can express. The contemporary playwright, Steven Dietz, describes my own feelings when he wrote:

"We get cocky with nature. Technology has enables us, we think, to reinvent it in our own image. Our machinery has made us, we think, invincible. Nature is what we do on Sunday. This belief christens our ships, launches our rockets, and bombards our atoms. Ultimately, however, nature refuses to be scenery . . . Nature is active. It still melts our wings when it needs to . . ..Nature is both cause and effect. It is the force against which we play out our lives."

Our human nature relates to these natural forces in our environment. I am inspired when I recognize visual connections between the two. Images become visual melodies for the mind’s eye, complete with harmony, and evoke an emotional response. I hope my work will stimulate an emotional resonance in the viewer that might allow the viewer to feel and reinforce their own connections to Nature. Techniques:

I have developed a personal technique by which I weave traditional natural fibers with contemporary metalized polyesters. The visual qualities of reflective materials, Mylar and other plastics, are especially appropriate when I deal with the themes of water or light. My multi-harness loom techniques primarily involve an extremely dense warp of natural yarns which sandwich the reflective material. The amount of yardage in a piece like "Turbulence" may include up to 7000 yards of yarn.

I cut the Mylar, which I sometimes paint with permanent inks, into straight or shaped strips. When weaving, I choose whether to expose them enough to create a particular image or to cover them to create an almost hidden dimension or illusion. The pieces then are finished by stretching them over a sculpted frame. The colorful textures and reflective plays of light create subtle to dramatic visual effects depending upon the viewer's perspective and lighting conditions. There emerges an organic/inorganic dual quality from my weavings which merges the old with the new, the warm with the cool, and adds a dynamic spark to contemporary architecture.