Candy Depew

I think the most interesting thing that Candy DePew (our freshman lecture guest two weeks ago) said was that she thinks of herself as a designer, not as an artist. This has blurred the line between artist and designer for me. I have always felt that to be a designer was a bit more mundane than to be an artist. It be an artist is to have a vision and to be able to physically manifest that creation in a way that evokes an emotion of some kind. I feel that to be a designer is to conceptualize ways to communicate.

Whatever DePew's profession, her medium is certainly an interesting one. She claims that she works in ambiance. (Or, rather, that is one of her specialties, as we have seen her work in basically any medium one could think of.) That, in my opinion, is more art than pure design. (At least according to my definition.) She executes her spaces using specific elements to evoke a certain physical reaction/emotion from the audience/inhabitants. It's more than just designing something to look a certain way. It's manipulating the mind of the viewer. That, in my opinion, is art.