Candy Alexandra González
Candy Alexandra González
Candy Alexandra González, West Bay View Fellowship Recipient 2019, working in the Professional Studio, August 2019.
As a West Bay View Fellowship recipient, Candy Alexandra González joined us at Dieu Donné in June 2019. Access to our studios, a stipend, and close guidance allowed Gonzalez to exclusively focus on their artistic practice and growth as an educator. The artist shares their fellowship experience through a short Q & A below.
What did this fellowship offer?
Aside from offering an incredibly supportive community, the fellowship allowed me to immerse myself in a collaborative papermaking practice. Papermaking is a collaborative practice by nature but in grad school we were taught to be self-sufficient. It was such a pleasure to work in a true collaborative space because it teaches you to be a team player. This is a skill that will serve me both in and out of the art world. Additionally, the fellowship offered the resources and the time to experiment with pulp painting in a way I hadn’t before. The opportunity to assist Nicole Eisenman and Erin Riley was transformative. Before then, I considered myself more of a sculptural papermaker. However, seeing them challenged me to approach pulp painting in a way that stayed true to my love of textured, constructed surfaces.
What artists did you work with during your fellowship? What studio projects did you find most exciting?
I started off my fellowship by working with Joan Hall, which was a treat since I’ve been a fan of her work since grad school. I also got to work with Nicole Eisenman, Erin Riley, Ezra Tessler, Tricia Wright, Eliza Kentridge, and of course, Susan Gosin.
Working with Nicole Eisenman was such a memorable experience. It taught me a lot about working on a larger scale than I was used to. From pigmenting large batches of base sheet pulp, to assisting with the mixing of a couple dozen pulp paints and washes, to setting up in a way that will allow the team to rearrange the space in a moment’s notice. That project was a whole adventure and so rich in learning moments.
What papermaking techniques were new or most exciting to you?
I didn’t think I would come to love pulp painting as much as I did. I didn’t have much experience with painting, even, before the fellowship. I studied Romance Languages in college and didn’t experience the traditional core studies most art kids do. It was a challenge to take on a technique that was a wee bit out of my comfort. While I’d had the opportunity to pulp paint in grad school, I didn’t practice it after we learned it. Dieu Donné changed that for me.
What were your favorite fibers?
Linen. It’s such a sexy fiber. It’s elastic and makes for the most beautiful translucent sheets. Additionally, it’s the fiber we use for pulp paints because it retains pigments so well!
Who was your Master Collaborator and what did you learn from them?
Tatiana Ginsberg (Co-Director of Artistic Projects and Master Collaborator), and Candy Alexandra González in the professional studio, August 2019.
My collaborator was Tatiana Ginsberg. I should start by saying that Tatiana was my first printmaking professor, my first papermaking instructor and my MFA thesis advisor. So much of what I know on paper and print, and even studio etiquette, I owe to Tatiana. Collaborating on the pulp paintings reinforced all that I’d already learned from her. It was an honor to collaborate with an artist that has been witness to my growth because our conversations that led to the growth in my work at DD were so rich and fruitful!
What else did you explore during your fellowship?
My work changed significantly while I was at DD. When I got there, I’d just started a self-portrait photo and short poem series titled ‘Mirror Talk.’ I knew that I wanted ‘Mirror Talk’ to inform the work I created at DD but was unsure of how I would accomplish that. After significant trial and error, I challenged myself to turn my self portraits into a series of large scale pulp paintings. The work I created at DD explores color and form in a way that was very new to me. I hope to continue exploring color, form and self-portraiture in a post COVID-19 life.
How did you benefit from access to the Community Studio?
The community was a great opportunity to experiment before my professional studio days. It gave me the opportunity to walk into the professional studio with a clear sense of what I wanted to accomplish!
How has the fellowship given you other opportunities and how would you describe your current involvement with Dieu Donné?
Thanks to the unwavering of the DD family, my work was exhibited in BRIC’s Present Bodies show! It was such a gratifying experience to have my work exhibited alongside the creations of Paul Wong, Tricia Wright, Lesley Dill, Noel Anderson, Lina Puerta, Saya Woolfalk and Swoon!
More recently, I was invited to talk about the work I made at DD with Tatiana for the Women Studios Workshop’s virtual programming this summer. This opportunity is particularly sweet because WSW is where I took my first papermaking class. I wouldn’t have pursued a career in visual arts had I not had that experience.
I’m also currently one of the papermaking instructors and a life-long DD family member!
About the Artist
Portrait of the artist by Jordan Rathkopf.
Candy Alexandra González is a Little Havana-born and raised, Philadelphia-based, multidisciplinary visual artist, poet, activist and trauma-informed educator. Currently, Candy’s artwork explores themes of body politics, fat phobia and self-healing through photography, poetry, printmaking and papermaking.
Candy received their MFA in Book Arts + Printmaking from the University of the Arts in 2017. Since graduating, they have been a 40th Street Artist-in-Residence in West Philadelphia, a West Bay View Fellow at Dieu Donné in Brooklyn, NY, and a Picasso Project Resident Artist at Kensington Health Sciences Academy in North Philadelphia.
For more information, please visit:
https://www.candyalexandragonzalez.com/
Additional Links: