Approaching the medium from a wheel throwing point of view, my work takes shape from functional forms. My process involves learning to treat my thrown forms as a tool to more complex shapes and vessels and the subsequent option for surface decoration.  While I produce mainly functional pottery, I attempt to give each piece a strong personality and uniqueness.

SMAart Gallery & Studio was founded in September 2012 and opened its doors at 1045 Sutter Street in San Francisco.

SMAart offers gallery exhibits, studio rentals and ceramic classes.  While the center primarily caters to ceramic artists, artists of every media are welcome.  Founder Steven M Allen opened SMAart to fulfill a longtime dream of having a gallery, a place to teach art to the community, and a place to create art in a creative open environment surrounded by other inspiring artists.  

Conveniently located in the Lower Nob Hill neighborhood with access to several major bus lines.  SMAart is also positioned in the heart of the Lower Polk Art Walk offering participating artists access to a burgeoning art scene.

I love how cold clay feels, but then fires to a finish that can feel warm in its shape and color.

I like to create beautiful and functional shapes, but I love being able to paint and draw on a freshly fired bisque ware. I mainly work with black oxide because it’s fun for me to watch how one shade of oxide changes as its absorbed by the porous surface.

I once took a ceramics course early in my college years and I dabbled again years after college.

I am not classically trained but I enjoy what I do and hope that others will also enjoy my pieces or at least feel the passion that I have in making each and every piece.

I wouldn’t be sharing my pieces if it wasn’t for my loving and supportive husband who encourages me to explore my happiness every day and also for our loving dog, Rufus, who guards the house while I go and play with dirt.

If you live in a San Francisco apartment, like I do, you need art to fit into your daily life.  That's why most of the artwork I do is functional pottery.  I also have a whimsical side, which you can see in my artwork decorated with banana slugs, eyes and feet, or other fun sculptural details.  I make most of my own glazes, so the glazing you see on pieces is original.

I'm also an amateur chef, so my ceramics are usually about preparing or serving food.

Currently I'm working in the San Francisco Clay Underground.  It's a great place, you should drop by.

People often ask me if I like to do puzzles, or tell me I’d make a great dentist (based on the intricate poking, prodding, scraping and filling that I do in my work).  I used to feel that working on mosaics was a way to bring order to chaos, by rearranging a multitude of tiny pieces together to form cohesion.  Realistically, for me, it’s none of these things.  Rather, it’s the possibilities that can come from a variety of pieces and materials.  It both astonishes and entices my mind.  Something about discovering an unknown combination or design that doesn’t exist in the world, is intoxicating.  This is how I feel when I am creating mosaic art.

Mosaics are not a fluid art form; they don’t blend into one another like oil paints, or mold into figures with soft lines that gently curve.  They are rigid and abrupt and can be unforgiving.  However, it’s the adventure to create these illusions, with proper coaxing of the medium, which I find intriguing.  I work with ceramics, glass & stone, like a linguist when they are interpreting.  I feel like I’m giving a voice to materials in a new and expressive way so people can visually understand what the gathering of pieces have to say.

Candace Loheed's orangeland is a small jewel of a gallery on Mason Street at Jackson, in what she refers to as "Nob Valley". The gallery is currently hosting the orangeland Botanical exhibition showcasing a wonderful collection of Bay Area Artists in many mediums. Drawing on nature produced a great variety of interpretations and the show is varied and exciting.

The Friends of Sharon Art Studio (FOSAS) is devoted to sustaining and enhancing the Sharon Art Studio’s (SAS) goal to promote artistic development, craftsmanship, and creative expression. FOSAS is proud to be a partner of the SF Recreation & Parks Department (SFRPD) to bring Sharon Art Studio’s outstanding art programs to you. FOSAS believes that art education is an essential component of a healthy community and strives to ensure that quality, noncompetitive art programs are affordable and accessible to all.  Sharon Art Studio offers classes for youth and adults at two facilities: the beautiful historic Sharon Building in the Eastern end of Golden Gate Park, and now at Mission Arts Center. To register for classes and workshops, visit www.sfreconline.org.