Shades of beauty
Artist Candice Tavares celebrates Black beauty with wooden wall sculptures.
The pandemic has been a catalyst for so many artists to start pursuing their art full time.
Artist Candice Tavares, NoelleRxArt, started using illustration as a way to express how she was feeling during the pandemic. She writes,
“Creativity has always brought me peace, so in the midst of all the COVID crazy I started drawing my feelings and over the past few months, illustration has become my favorite hobby and the most amazing form of therapy. It gives me the space to celebrate all of the joy and release a lot of the pain of being Black and a woman in America in a time when that feels like a dangerous combination.”
Growing up, she was always a creative person. Tavares is a self-taught artist with her only training coming from free art classes on Saturdays during middle and high school. She experimented and worked in many mediums before settling into her current use of wood.
Tavares recently had her debut solo exhibition, “Postures of Praise,” at Nubian Hueman DC. Inspired by her mother, who was a dancer, the series captures the strength and fluidity of the body. The gallery described the show as, “a dual exhibition featuring an artistic exploration of movement based worship along with a celebration of Black women being beautiful, soft, complex, and radiant just as they are.“
Her wooden wall sculptures are stunning. Each figure comes to life with their features mapped out with laser cut organic shapes layered in varying shades of wood with hand carved details. Using paint sparingly, Tavares stains the wood to keep enhance the beauty of the wood grain, a nod to celebrating the “hues of Blackness.”
Tavares’ illustrations are created in a similar style to her wood pieces, the figures created by blocks of color. Her distinct illustration style transfers to a variety of mediums, and she even creates unique wooden cutting boards. Check out the work she has available on her website here and on her Etsy shop here.
She has even written and illustrated a children’s book, “Beautifully Brown.” Tavares writes, “it’s not just about teaching children to love their own skin, it is also about teaching them to see the beauty in other people’s skin.”
Make sure to follow her on Instagram @noellerx and on Facebook, NoelleRx Handmade.