Today we’d like to introduce you to Esther Hi’ilani Candari.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I was born and raised in Hawai’i to two very creative people. My father is an Asian immigrant with very humble roots who has built his own successful architecture company from the ground up. My mother is American, majored in art education, and homeschooled all my siblings and I. Because of this diverse upbringing, I developed a love for creating, solving visual problems, and constantly learning about culture, history, and art at a young age. Despite this though, I didn’t decide to seriously pursue art until I started college at BYU-H in 2012 and I didn’t decide to pursue a career as a fine-artist until my senior year in 2016.
While I started out my BFA in sculpture, an unexpected turn of events led me to switch to painting halfway through my degree. I had never painted before and it was a very steep learning curve. After completing my BFA in painting with a minor in sculpture and a certificate in photography, I went on to do a residency at the New York Academy of Art, and complete an MFA in 2D Art at Liberty University. By this time I had found my stride as a figurative artist who focuses on the crossroads of gender, race, religion, ecology, and sense of place. As someone who has lived my life at the crossroads of so many of these things, I recognized a need for images that people in my position could relate to as well as images that could bridge the gap between seeming disparate parts of my personal identity and life experience.
In 2020 I moved back to Utah so my husband could complete his Ph.D. I had spent the last few years working in the art and cultural education sector working in various positions to pay my way through school. So I took a position as a Highschool art teacher to provide some stability while I found my footing as an artist and my husband worked through graduate school. After a year of juggling a full-time high-school position, a part-time adjunct professor position, and as many art exhibits and commissions as I could cram in, I took the leap and quit my full-time teaching position to pursue my freelance work. That was a year and a half ago. It has been a sleepless wild ride ever since full of various ventures, experiments, and unexpected and wonderful opportunities. I have worked harder in the last year and a half than I think I have worked ever before, and I was that crazy student who took 18 credits every semester, worked two jobs, and volunteered in student government. But it has also been the most fulfilling time of my life.
In the last three years, I have gone from selling a handful of original pieces every year to selling dozens. From painting in a sparsely furnished spare bedroom to painting in a full-fledged studio. From being a little-known art student to having my work published by Deseret Book and purchased by two museums. From trepidatiously submitting my work to small local competitions to jurying large regional ones. From feeling fairly alone as a woman and professional artist in a religious community to have some of the most wonderful and vibrant friendships, mentorships, and community networks, I have ever had. From having only shown in a professional gallery a handful of times to being part owner and manager of one.
It hasn’t been a clean uphill climb though. It has required a lot of sacrifice, humility, sheer elbow grease and the support of a small village. I have stumbled and fumbled trying to find my place in a complex world of conflicting ideas surrounding identity and place. It has included deep pain due to personal tragedy and the reframing of my view of self due to being recently diagnosed with Anxiety Disorder and ADHD.
But as I look at the ways I am now able to fulfill the dreams of younger me, the pipe dreams of my ancestors, and give back to the community, it makes it all worth it.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
One of the double-edged swords of being ADHD is the fact I have a hard time committing to one very specific medium or style. My solution to the need to develop a more succinct brand as an artist while still accommodating for variety has been to oscillate between traditional oil painting and mixed media work. The beauty of working with a mixed media process is that every project requires a new skills, solutions, and innovation. Even if you have utilized a specific combination of materials before, any adjustment to that combination or even simply the composition of the piece or the weather that day might result in a drastically different outcome.
The colors, imagery, and subject matter of my work often relate across these pieces creating a cohesive aesthetic across various processes. The most common theme in my work is women and BIPOC centric religious/spiritual images. Especially within the Latter-day Saint tradition, the mainstream images are vastly dominated by male and Eurocentric imagery. I work to shift this trend both through the work I create and through the education I provide through various channels. I am deeply drawn to the stories that have not been told, the silence between the lines, and the emptiness in a community that can be filled by an image.
Another way I have learned to channel my chaotic energy is by staying very actively engaged with my professional community. I am constantly curating shows, organizing fundraisers, offering educational opportunities, and coordinating resources. Often with the goal of providing women and BIPOC artists with the support they need to continue creating and innovating. While I try to donate money where and when I can to organizations I respect, I have found I am able to contribute vastly more by offering my skills and time and by working to create specific resources and opportunities with the tools I have.
Alright so before we go can you talk to us a bit about how people can work with you, collaborate with you or support you?
Collaborating is one of my favorite activities. I am always open to ideas of ways we can put our skills and resources together to better educate, uplift, and provide for those who most need it in our community. Collaborating with other creatives is always a pleasure, but I especially appreciate when I am able to collaborate with someone outside of my professional field because it often widens the reach of both our work.
One of the silver linings of the pandemic was the community I was able to build through Instagram. That is one of the best venues to connect with me, stay updated on my work, and initiate conversations about collaboration.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.hiilanifinearts.com
- Instagram: @hiilanifinearts
- Facebook: @estherhiilanicandariartist
