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Candy Coated, nee Candy Depew, is a multi-media and multi-dimensional Sculptor/Master Printer based in Northern California, a devout promoter of decorative culture, its continued daily practice, and truly believes in the healing power of creative endeavors especially art. Known for her vibrant and colorful work respeldit of symbolic forms found in art/life/history/nature that Candy has fancifully abstracted, decorated, repeated in dizzying number/pattern/color combinations then merged into her vibrant collage-like sculptural museum installations and community based public art works.

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Candy was based in Philadelphia, PA for more than a decade making art, teaching screen printing around the city and in her educational initiative "the CandyCoated Studio School of Decorative Art" (which has transformed into the School of Healing Art and Ancient Wisdom) while taking part in national and international artist residencies in sculpture, installation, and ceramics. She has lectured on and shown her sculptural ceramic work, silk-screen prints, and room installations at universities and galleries in the US and internationally.  Born in Cleveland, Ohio, Candy earned her BFA from Kent State University, with major studies in ceramics, jewelry and metals, drawing, French Literature, and Cultural Anthropology. After studying at Newcomb School of Art at Tulane University, New Orleans, she completed her MFA at Tyler School of Art at Temple University, Philadelphia, in 1997. In 2002, she continued furthering her interests with The London Consortium at the Tate Modern, London, focusing on the concept of "candycoating."

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Candy worked with the Fabric Workshop and Museum, Philadelphia, from 1998 to 2002, advancing to the position of Master Printer. In 2002, she received a Pew Fellowship in the Arts, which enabled her to complete a five-year artist residency at The Clay Studio, Philadelphia. In 2004, she was selected for a four-month artist residency at the Kohler Arts/Industry Program in Sheboygan, Wisconsin. In 2005, she was honored with a residency at the European Ceramic Work Centre in DenBosch, The Netherlands, with film-work create in Amsterdam, an NEA, Joan Mitchell Foundation, and Chiem-Ried funded studio residency at the International Studio and Curatorial Program- NYC. Candy returned to the Netherlands in 2009 at the EKWC.

 

To complement her candycoated initiative of decorating the world little by little and spreading her passion for silkscreen printing and decorating, Candy established the "StudioSchool" of decorative art & design in Philadelphia at her Candy Coated Center. She has partnered with the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Philadelphia Public School District to set-up printing studios with students in their schools.  She continues to candy coat her world, and is helping others to do so, as well.

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Candy migrated to California to expand her experiences with the healing arts, delve deeper into the spirituality realm that drives her and created a start-up project; an experimental Artist Residency Program in Napa Valley named Wherever You Go, You ART  based on concepts of Zen Buddhism, healing with nature, sun power, and how culture(s) relate(d) to their natural environment. Being a kind of "living residency" that happens wherever Candy happens to be, the program has evolved into one that travels and takes up seasonal residency in differing locations across the United States. 

 

For the summer 2018 iteration, Candy went back to her karmic roots in the rural heartland of America, Northern Ohio. Instead of a contemporary white walled studio, the residency took on the form of a tiny house surrounded by organic gardens grown for use in health promoting salad and soup recipes learned while she became a monk at the Zen center the year previous.  This living sculptural incarnation of her dedicated research in, experience creating and teaching art, combined with setting up countless studios  coalesced into one gem on wheels; a modern 1970's Holiay Rambler named the tiny TeaHOUSE & Sitting Room with a View.  September 2019 showcases the next iteration of the tiny TeaHOUSE, build from the wheels up following a revised and further honed design that includes surrounding decking.  An exhibition of fresh tea set designs and collaboration with Philadelphia ceramist displayed atop specially designed floating wood shelves accompanied by the beautifully realistic porcelain flower sculptures with be presented to the public at the Clay Studio, Philadelphia, PA.

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