Kandi Finney

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Artist Bio

Kandi Finney is a multidisciplinary artist working primarily in digital painting and drawing. Her work examines identity, memory, and performance through carefully considered depictions of everyday objects. By isolating familiar forms and arranging them within deliberate compositions, she invites quiet reflection on the ways ordinary life holds emotional and symbolic weight.

Finney’s practice is rooted in attentiveness and restraint. She approaches art as an ongoing process, allowing time, intuition, and subtle shifts to guide each work. Rather than seeking resolution, her images remain open, dwelling in moments of pause and transition. This contemplative approach encourages viewers to slow down and consider identity as something fluid and evolving, shaped by experience rather than declaration.

Working digitally, Finney draws from traditions of still life and figurative painting while embracing the clarity and control of contemporary tools. Her layered process emphasizes surface, light, and tone, balancing stylization with emotional resonance. Color is used thoughtfully to create atmosphere and depth, supporting a sense of stillness rather than spectacle.

Through her work, Finney aims to elevate the overlooked and give form to quiet states of being. Her images suggest that meaning often emerges in subtle gestures and accumulated moments, inviting sustained looking and personal interpretation.

Artist Statement

Masquerade of the Ordinary explores identity as something playful, flexible, and unfinished. The painting gathers shoes, masks, jewelry, and feathers into a shared space, objects often linked to celebration and transformation, yet here they appear mid pause, as if caught between uses. Rather than signaling a completed performance, these items suggest experimentation. Identity is not fixed or polished. It is something tried on, rearranged, and enjoyed while still becoming.

I am interested in the quiet humor and pleasure embedded in everyday objects. Shoes hint at movement even when still. Masks exaggerate expression while offering protection. Jewelry sparkles with intention, memory, and small indulgences. Collected together, these elements feel less ceremonial and more conversational, like remnants of a good time that is not quite over. The masquerade here is not about deception. It is about permission to play.

The title reflects a balance between seriousness and lightness. Masquerade implies drama and artifice, while the ordinary grounds the work in routine life. By bringing these ideas together, I point to how much of daily existence involves subtle performance, often approached with curiosity, improvisation, and occasional joy. The deep blue ground acts as a stage but also a sandbox, a space where objects are elevated yet unburdened by narrative rules. Nothing has to be resolved. Everything is allowed to remain in progress.

My digital process supports this sense of exploration. I build forms through layered shapes and deliberate textures, borrowing from traditional still life while embracing the clarity and playfulness of the digital medium. Reflections and shadows are carefully placed, but stylization is welcomed. I am interested in how objects feel emotionally rather than how they behave realistically, allowing color and surface to carry mood and personality.

Masquerade of the Ordinary ultimately celebrates becoming rather than arriving. It invites viewers to consider identity as something assembled through small choices, experiments, and moments of fun that are often overlooked. The work honors the in-between state, where nothing is final, the costume is still being adjusted, and the joy lies in the act of trying.