We were lucky to catch up with Candice Carnes recently and have shared our conversation below.

Candice , appreciate you joining us today. Naming anything – including a business – is so hard. Right? What’s the story behind how you came up with the name of your brand?

We’re actually in the middle of a name change. Originally, we were The Shop of Infinite Curiosities. I was learning about cabinets of curiosities in a class in ancient books and learning about early curiosities as part of my Master of Liberal Arts degree at Johns Hopkins while also becoming an artist.

I have always loved travel, museums, collecting, the arts, and the sciences. Curiosities Cabinets were early collections that eventually became the first museums. They offered an intersection between creativity and science. Early curiosities shops sold hard to find and interesting things in the height of the Victorian era, which was also something that influenced my art. However, after opening there was a growing population searching for oddities and curiosities, which is a small part of my interests, but sets a certain expectation, I don’t think I always filled properly for my customers.

Last year, we moved from a very busy 900-square-foot store in a busy Albuquerque mall, to a very small 600-square-foot store in a very small town. I no longer have employees. One of my employees, Axel Morse, became my best friend and decided to become a phlebotomist but still does consult work. And the other one, Zack Albatross, became my romantic and business partner and now we get to do more art and creative work. We also found that Gallup needed a bit less shock and a bit more serious art. Gallup is rich with amazing Native American art, but we do something different. So now we are exploring the endless possibilities that can offer. The Shop of Infinite Possibilities seemed to be the new natural fit, since our minds and our creative interests are infinite.

Candice , before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

As a child, I grew up doing arts and crafts in just about all disciplines because my family was really into that world and did anything from silversmithing, to flower arranging. As an adult I dabbled in painting but worked in healthcare. Eventually I made small scale sculptures and miniatures. At one point I was doing design work and laser engraving.
Now it’s all starting to come together, and I am finding that pretty much anything I have done has evolved to work on an intersection with other media. My paintings now include relief work in clay and other forms which gives them a 3D element. My sculptures love to be painted and some even include custom laser parts. I’m always looking for found objects. Over time, I find that I am an artist that uses crafting and a crafter that uses arting. I like doing a lot of different things and all those different things are starting to meld together more and more. Soon we are going to be making store displays that are also art that can have interactive elements. It’s a bit scary because I am not used to working in such large scale, but I am excited. We have a pregnant mannequin I pulled out of the trash years ago. She moved to Gallup with us, and she’s been calling me for years. We finally got a small workspace in Gallup, so it’s time to do her justice. I don’t know exactly how that’s going to come together but I do feel Mother Earth and mushroom vibes.

Are there any books, videos or other content that you feel have meaningfully impacted your thinking?

I’ve really enjoyed the podcasts of the creative married duo, Rafi and Klee. It’s like always having a friend to talk to about what’s going on in your mind and soul as an artist. They address all the things introverts especially struggle with when getting our work out there. I really didn’t do any marketing in Albuquerque because we were so busy, but it’s something we need to do a lot more of now if we want to stay in business.

Things like SEO work because they mimic an organic process which I would prefer to do. The standard marketing advice works for most people, but it’s a bit too plastic for me. What I really love about Rafi and Klee is that they don’t like a lot of it either, but they’re a lot further along than we are. We just built a website and were questioning using WordPress and then found they were using the same tools we were using, and we breathed a big sigh of relief. They know what they’re doing, and they’re building a presence. Ours will be very different, but the tools and skills are transferable. It will take years to accomplish what they have, but we see that we can be authentically ourselves.

If you’re finding yourself needing a support system in any area of the creative life, I would check them out.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

I think it’s hard to be different. When you belong to the mainstream culture there are representations of yourself everywhere. You can buy things that you want or need to feel included. But there’s a lot of people who don’t feel like they belong. There’s little out there that makes them feel connected. When I was young gay people existed, but there were no words for what I was, which I now know is queer. Concepts like non-binary or transgender or other variations didn’t exist. I was female and I liked boys, so I had no language available for me to identify with. Now I know that queer is a spectrum and wherever you fall on it is valid. The community has expanded.

I also grew up as a very white child in the South Valley of Albuquerque and I loved the culture there, but my family did not, so I was culturally an outcast both at home and at school. I’ve had a lot of serious health issues, and I’m probably neurodivergent. I just vibed differently. I never fit with anyone and everyone I knew well was disconnected to me because I was different and it scared them. I’m just starting to even process what was happening.

People needed us in Albuquerque, and we soon had a large queer following, but I think they need us even more here in Gallup. There are lots of different kinds of being different and I often hit a lot of niches that are left out of a small market. We may be a bit confusing because we do a lot of crafts and art, but it’s weird or edgy, or purposefully shocking because it gets people to think outside of their comfort zone. I think the fringes of art, where things are a bit dark or strange is where a lot of people find solace. But we try to also be light and bright, welcoming, inclusive and kind so that it all feels very safe and natural and there is no “other.” I see the store itself as a creative work meant to do something for people: to make them be like, “Whoa where am I?” I think it’s time to normalize being different. We need make it okay to be something unexpected. It’s important to create safe spaces even if some people don’t like what I am doing.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://shopinfinitepossibilities.com
• Facebook: [We’re in name-change limbo for facebook right now.]
• Other: Come see us in person at Rio West Mall in Gallup, New Mexico.
  We’re right off I-40 in a small indoor mall perfect for a nice rest stop. 1300 West Maloney Ave. Suite 78.