Tell us about yourself:
I started creating artwork from my home studio as just a hobby while I was a full-time single mom.
After being inundated with orders and unsure of how to scale, I quickly began training and hiring women to help replicate and ship my business to fulfilling order requests. All of this has reached a turning point during the COVID-19 pandemic. After I was laid off from my full-time job, I moved our team into the studio and took a full-time position with Candice Luter Art + Interiors. In 2021, I was the Grand Prize Winner of the Etsy Design Awards Global. I had the opportunity to design a home decor collection for Target as part of Black History Month. Having worked with major retailers such as West Elm, Bloomingdales, All Modern, Perigold, Lulu and Georgia, and Wayfair, Candice Luter Art + Interiors maintains and continues to grow our Midwest studio specializing in independent design, hospitality installations, and small batch manufacturing of Custom furniture and home decor.
What kind of physical/mental space are you in when you’re creating?
When I have downtime to create, I plan my destination workspace either in my studio when the team leaves for the day or in my living room when the mood strikes. When I’m in the studio with all the material at my disposal, it’s a wild jam session with blasting music to suit my mood, which usually falls somewhere between Lana Del Ray and Like Saturn. When I’m at home, it’s more of the same, but with fewer materials on hand, it provides a focused perspective on how a decor piece fits within the space. My home directly reflects my production line, as most of his artwork is prototypes. Being around those pieces while designing allows for leverage to maintain brand consistency but also encourages more of a design aspect in terms of how the new piece complements (not competes with) other decor, whether it’s my own or purchased elsewhere.
I usually go into design mode with some ideas to implement the end result I’m trying to achieve and work backwards. And then, from behind, at the end, the mediator takes over, and I submit to the design itself, allowing him to move me in the direction he wants. Sometimes, I end up exactly where I want to be, and other times, I’m in a completely different direction, but the result is the same…it’s organic and becomes a physical expression of a part of me. I always learn something about myself and the material itself; A beautiful union to let go of and make room for newfound freedoms
Is there a defining moment in your life that speaks to who you are as an artist today?
I had the amazing opportunity to do freelance design work for Target a few years ago. Even though I felt very confident and prepared every week I met their team, I still felt like I was falling behind. It wasn’t until a pivotal moment that I will never forget that it changed me forever. One of the directors stopped the meeting and said, “Candace, I can tell you’re playing it safe. No. Even if you think it’s something we wouldn’t consider producing. I still want you to go there.” This was the first time someone had seen something hidden inside me; I just wanted to play it safe and be accepted. On that day, I was given permission to be who I was created to be and design how I see the world. I cried after that meeting because I was so happy with the freedom I felt, and from that moment on, I took the mindset that there was a time to be modern
What type of materials do you use in your work?
I work with a lot of reflective glass, cotton rope, ink, and cement-like textures. I try to push the boundaries in terms of what I want the medium and materials to do for me rather than relying on what is expected of them from a broader perspective. So when I find success in combining two or three of them, I embark on a new adventure worth taking advantage of and pushing the boundaries of what I can do and the pieces themselves.
Tell us about your link collection?
Who doesn’t love a wooden chain link, but it’s even better if it has a soft, fluffy texture and is generous in size! I challenged my team to think outside the box when it came to the piles of leftover fiber we had from rope scraps that had just been discarded. One of our hairstylists came to me weeks later and asked to show me a style she had developed using some scraps. I was smitten! I started thinking about ways to incorporate this technology into my designs, and Link was one of the products that resulted! I love this appliqué because of its intricacy and because it has a wonderful green story. It also gives the buyer the freedom to display the piece the way they envision it. We asked several designers to display them in different ways, from the ceiling to hanging from the wall to the floor. It’s important to me to create flexible products that give everyone else the freedom to go to the next level with their own designs.
We love to see you immerse yourself in the world of fashion. Tell us all about it!
It has always been important for me to look for inspiration in other design industries that are different from my own to keep things fresh. Fashion has always been one of them, and in my spare time, you can easily find me in front of a mannequin disassembling, assembling and installing whatever materials are available. It opened me up to creativity in furniture design and decor in ways I never imagined. Instead of looking at one of our primary mirrors as just a mirror, I reframed my thinking beyond what a flat surface could do. In my latest launch, “Shroud,” you will find layered fabrics covering glass as a functional art installation. I had so much fun that I recently photographed an updated collection of my work as fashion accessories. Displaying art on the walls is boring! To say I’m having a blast is an understatement!
How did your grandmother inspire your fiber sculptures?
My grandmother was an amazing artist, something I didn’t appreciate when I was younger and older. She had an incredible talent for seeing beauty in the most mundane things. I can now appreciate her unique perspective. Although she was naturally gifted in all areas of art, she seemed to gravitate towards weaving and did so simply for the pleasure it brought to others when she gave it up. Part of me knows if she were still on this earth how happy she would be to see the life I’ve put together for myself in design. I also knew that she was going to bring a crazy, outside-the-box perspective that I had never thought of, and that was going to really challenge me in the way I see my work.
