Candace Nycz, a teaching artist, was raised in New England and was drawn to the light of Southern California. She moved to Los Angeles in 2000, to attend the graduate program at Art Center in Pasadena and study painting with some of the world’s preeminent artistic minds.

Harnessing her interest in the discordant – in punk music, and auditory and visual loudness – her paintings manipulate a version of the primary color palette and repetitive painterly moves, allowing variations that create rapid movement, illusion, and vibration.

In developing a curriculum for her daughter’s art-starved public school, she recently rediscovered her love of teaching and encouraging students to discover their own voices. By prioritizing process over product and allowing mistakes to be part of the dialogue, Nycz hopes that students will gain unique creative insights, pushing the boundaries of what an arts education can be.

Candace is deeply invested in sharing and developing the creative process and encouraging experimentation, ideas, and beautiful chaos in the classroom.