Photographs by Candance Silver

 Candace Silver’s photographs remind us that the world is amazing in all of its wonderful detail. Who could ever imagine a  show inspired by a glass of coco cola? See for yourself in splendid prints on canvas how Candace captures an eruption of light and color in a glass of coke on a sunlit table.  Rich brown-blacks, brilliant orange flares, sweeping and shimmering ribbons of white light refracting from the glass offer us a rare outlook on the ordinary. 

 “I came to the realization I was going to have to find the extraordinary within the environment I had available to me...I couldn’t get out to drive around , it had to be right here!” Taking the coca cola image one step further from the accidental, she posed glasses of tinted water to get new colors of reflected light.  

  Candace grew up in an atmosphere that encouraged her creativity and can’t remember a time she wasn’t painting or constructing something. “I’ve known since I was three that I wanted to be an artist when I grew up, I’ve always known that. I just love what I am doing and I feel I have reached a level of competence that I am pleased with. I can hardly wait to see what’s going to happen next!” 

Raised in the Ozarks, she spent much of her adult life in Tennessee. Like many female artists, raising a family became her main creative endeavor for most of those years. At one point she did piece work for a doll maker in Tennessee, stitching together body parts and learning cloth construction techniques. This knowledge informed the making of her “Little People” dolls, also featured at the gallery, that she began making in more recent years from natural materials such as roots, feathers, bones, and turtle shells.

While visiting with some friends she met from Ashfield in 1986 Candace fell in love with the town of Shelburne Falls. “I was not even out of the car, it was just my foot sticking out the door, but I was like --‘This is it, I am home!’ It was strong, intense. I determined then that I would move here one day and it took ten years because that’s just the way life is” recalled Candace.  During the winter of 1996 she arrived in town to 6 feet of snow and the welcoming arms of a diverse arts community. 

She also arrived “desperate to get creative energy going again” which led her to takeclasses at Greenfield Community College in oil painting and photography opening further avenues of expression. “It’s been an amazing evolution being here, the people  are so awesome. I never felt like I belonged in Tennessee. I feel like I belong here, we’re all artsy-fartsy oddballs and we all accept that we’re oddballs and so we get along.”