We recently connected with Acadia Kandora and have shared our conversation below.

Acadia, appreciate you joining us today. When did you first know you wanted to pursue a creative/artistic path professionally?

Even as a kid, I had an itch to make things. Whether it was making houses for my Pokémon figures out of old milk jugs and tissue boxes, maps to nowhere in particular, or putting together silly chroma-keyed videos with my little sister, I always had to keep my hands moving alongside my brain. Creativity quickly became a way of life, and an essential way of expressing complex emotions.

I remember conversing with my parents at the dinner table when I was in high school about what I wanted to do. At the time, I tried to force myself to be obsessed with science, but it never fulfilled that creative itch for me. My mom encouraged me to do something creative because it was what made me happy. I didn’t know exactly what I wanted to do at that point, but I knew it would involve the act of making.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

My name is Acadia Kandora, I am a printmaker, zinester, rock collector and nature enthusiast. I’m originally from the mountains of Appalachia, but now I reside in Arkansas where I create printed and sculptural works and teach printmaking at the University of Arkansas. I hold a MFA in Printmaking from the University of Arkansas and a BFA with concentrations in Graphic Design and Sculpture from Shepherd University. I have exhibited both nationally and internationally in cities such as Baltimore, Indianapolis, Bentonville, Tulsa, and Korpo, Finland.

My work is a combination of printed matter, collaborative publication, community projects, and alternative processes that examine our relationship to nature: nature as armor, nature as sanctuary, and the intersection between the imaginary and the concrete.

Deep ecology and the theory of indistinguishability and glitch as a mode of disruption inform my conceptual and material explorations. Being present in nature is an essential part of my studio practice, where I recharge, observe, document, and collect. My current archive from these excursions contains more than 12,0000 artifacts and includes photographs, drawings, handwritten notes, and found objects. I deconstruct, alter, and collage elements of the archive to create the imagery present in my prints and publications.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

When I was in undergrad I sustained a back injury that uprooted my creative process. I was studying sculpture at the time and was working with these large abstract concrete and metal forms late at night. Word of the wise don’t try to catch an 80 pound sculpture falling off a welding table.

Because of this injury I had to pivot and change my practice. This is when I found printmaking. While recovering, I immersed myself in this new medium which has become the foundation of my art practice today.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.

The journey isn’t linear. Nor is creativity. It isn’t something that you can just turn on with a switch or something that stops with the making. You have to go with the flow and follow where your creative spark takes you.

My journey started by thinking I was going to be a graphic designer, and then I pivoted after realizing how much more I enjoyed making work in other mediums. But that doesn’t mean that I abandoned my graphic design skills entirely. I just incorporate them into the sculptural and print work I make now. I take everything I make as an opportunity to try new things, learn something new, and to push myself. To me, the act of learning and making is the most exciting part of the creative process. I am not only invested in the end product, but very interested in developing new printmaking processes and ways of making that I can share with others; ways that are more accessible, eco-friendly, or both.

In essence, I think creativity has to be nurtured like a garden, fertilized with research of some kind, and given time to sit. If you don’t tend the garden, all the plants will wilt, and likewise if you water it too much the plants will die of root rot. It’s a cycle of research, planning, making, taking a breath, reflecting, and repeating.

Contact Info:

• Website: acadiakandora.com
• Instagram: @acadiakprints

Image Credits
For Headshot: Emma Boydston, Jordan Lee, & Jordan Eldridge