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my name is ramona candy and i’m an

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artist who works mainly in collage and

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printmaking

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my mother single mother of four the most

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fantastic

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creative person in the world she was a

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seamstress and a dressmaker so our tiny

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apartment was

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always filled with colorful fabrics

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threads

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buttons trimmings so there was always

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some scrap of color

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every place in my house everywhere you

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look there was color it might have been

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scraps it might have been actual fabric

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it might have been something she was

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working on

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still on the sewing machine so i think

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color uh

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first hit me in that way from my mom and

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then of course being a dancer

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a dance of caribbean and african work

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colors everywhere you know the color is

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every in the costumes in the in the kind

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of

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folklore we’re telling about

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i wanted to dance my whole life but i

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also was very interested in painting and

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drawing because my mother did a lot of

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drawing

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so i never knew which was my first start

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i just say both of them entered my life

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at the same time and i’m passionate

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about both of them

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even though i don’t dance now um i’m

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always

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watching dance i love to move i

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called myself at one time a

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choreographer on campus because i love

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movement as well as color i love

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movement on my canvas

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so my work is always moving is always a

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place to go

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every painting i start with a sketch a

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light sketch and then i

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cover the canvas with a light wash of

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acrylic paint

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i get heavier and heavier in the paint

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as i go along deciding what colors

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i want to be where and i always

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challenge

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myself when i paint i said can you

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create this painting without adding

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anything but acrylic paints can you just

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you leave out the paper all together

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and i get to a point where i said nah

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just one piece of paper here and next

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thing you know my entire canvas is

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covered with

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different kinds of papers most of my

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work is collage

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even the porches that look like they’re

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all paint so

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every one of my paintings has something

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extra

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other than paint itself

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the advice i give to young artists is

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that you should take advantage of every

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opportunity if this opportunity to

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exhibit somewhere

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take that opportunity and put your work

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up let your work be seen

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i’ve met many artists who have worked

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and they never put it out

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anywhere but i think it’s important that

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work be seen you don’t always have to

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sell your work

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many people think that to put it out

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means you have to sell it doesn’t mean

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you have to sell it i love

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living with my work i love selling it

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but i also love

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living with it so you know the fact that

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people see my work whether it’s

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a zoom exhibit or whether it’s something

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outside or

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um you know on my website people need to

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see you

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for work people need to see and you need

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to keep working no matter what don’t get

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upset or discouraged if you don’t sell

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if someone says something negative about

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your work take that in stride

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i remember when i first started putting

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my work out after my dance career

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people would say things that you know

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there weren’t too many negative comments

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and they

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mainly said things like why are you

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charging so much and i wasn’t charging

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much at all believe me

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and what happened with that was i took

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that and i said okay well that’s full

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that gives me a little bit of um

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inspiration as to

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you know what people are liking what

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people don’t like and who to pay

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attention

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to who not to pay attention to because

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many people say things

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because they can’t do what you do so you

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just keep going and you just keep

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you know inspiring people with your work

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again

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that’s what artwork does it inspires it

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moves it motivates and

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that’s what i would tell young people

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either create people who are creating

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artwork

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or people who are looking at artwork

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i am absolutely thrilled that my work is

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representing the united states and timor

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two of the pieces are figurative pieces

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uh one is called marigold

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and marigo is the capital city of french

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side of st martin

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i was there several times and what

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really struck me

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about marigot was the colorful mess of

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the

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market scene and i love market scenes

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when i was a dancer a lot of our dances

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began with market scenes because my

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dance

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uh experience was doing caribbean and

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african dance it was always a market

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scene always some kind of drama

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that preceded the actual dance so um the

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markets in america was so beautiful i

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captured it

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and um i love looking at it because it

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reminds me that i’m on a beach someplace

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eating a mango

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the other piece is um was the scene in

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the bahamas

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in the bahamas and it’s a piece called

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conch shells and starfish

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and it was a scene of uh these people

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selling conch shells as souvenirs to

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tourists on the um

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at the dock in nassau bahamas the third

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piece is an abstract piece called

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pathways so i can’t really describe what

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it is since it’s abstract but it was

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basically um a call to uh the fact that

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there are so many ways that we get to

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what we need to get to

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the circular we can go up and down and

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that’s what the piece is very circular

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it sort of leads

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the viewer into um places unknown

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places where you want to go it’s a very

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colorful piece as well mostly oranges

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and yellows i did a little research on

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team

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i’ve heard of the country i didn’t know

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exactly where it was or what it was

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did a lot of googling and found out what

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the population was like and what the

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people were like i’m just so happy that

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my work is going to represent the united

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states because the people of timor

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are brown people like myself and it was

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just so wonderful to have

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my work which depicts people of color in

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a place where there are people of color

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and that

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everyone the people of color of timor

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and the people who come in and out of

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the embassy

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get to see how um life is

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for people of color and people around

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the world and so

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it’s just wonderful that that connection

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for me was there

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you