{"title":"Cheri Carandanis","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg style=\"max-height: 300px; max-width:55%\" src=\"https:\/\/helloart-prod-bucket.s3.ca-central-1.amazonaws.com\/media\/artist\/cheri-carandanis\/cheri-carandanis-profile.jpg\"\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eCheri Carandanis is a Portland-based abstract painter and mixed media artist whose work explores the tension between rupture and repair. A former U.S. Air Force critical care nurse, she spent 25 years in medicine before a traumatic brain injury in 2019 abruptly ended her career and redirected her life toward the studio.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWorking with layered surfaces, bold mark-making, and intuitive composition, Carandanis creates paintings that balance structure and disruption, energy and stillness. Her background in high-stakes medical environments informs her sensitivity to fragility, resilience, and the unseen emotional landscapes people carry. Rather than offering resolution, her work invites reflection, holding space for complexity, contradiction, and transformation.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eCarandanis lives and works in the Portland, Oregon area, where she continues to build a body of work rooted in honesty, presence, and the belief that beauty and fracture can coexist on the same surface.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch4\u003eARTIST’S STATEMENT\u003c\/h4\u003e\u003cp\u003eArt found me when my life split open.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn 2019, a brain injury ended my 25-year nursing career overnight. The role that had defined me vanished, and the part of my brain wired for logic and clinical precision was damaged. I went from healer to patient, from certainty to disorientation. What remained was a blank space, and eventually, a brush.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePainting became a way back into my body. Back into meaning. What began as survival turned into a language. My work lives in the tension between rupture and repair, grief and gratitude, control and surrender. Each piece is a record of that collision, where structure meets instinct and something sacred breaks through.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eI paint intuitively, allowing marks to build, interrupt, and resolve. The process mirrors how healing actually happens, not in straight lines, but in layers, disruptions, and unexpected moments of grace. My background in medicine still lives in the work. I am attentive to what hurts, what holds, what wants to be seen. I just use paint instead of a chart.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eViewers often describe the paintings as both alive and grounding, energetic yet contemplative. That duality is intentional. I am interested in creating spaces where contradiction can exist without being resolved too quickly. Where beauty and fracture can share the same surface.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eI no longer heal in a hospital. I build places for reflection, for honesty, for quiet recognition. These paintings are not about fixing what is broken. They are about honoring what remains, and discovering what can still emerge.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"disassembly-required","title":"Disassembly Required","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eAcrylic on canvas.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e36x48x2\"\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eLayers of scraped color, ghosted ladders, and fractured grids come together like a wall that’s been built, torn down, and rebuilt again. It carries the marks of construction and destruction, a reminder that beauty often shows up in the mess of what’s taken apart. There’s no manual here, no tidy set of directions - just the evidence of process, intuition, and survival written into the surface.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Cheri Carandanis","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42167119806567,"sku":null,"price":3080.0,"currency_code":"CAD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0063\/3038\/4487\/files\/1_1770315734_99846.jpg?v=1770315758"},{"product_id":"rupture-1","title":"Rupture","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eAcrylic on canvas.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e48x60x2\"\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis piece came from a moment when holding it together stopped being honest.\r\u003cbr\u003e\r\u003cbr\u003eThere’s a rupture running through the center, not loud, not chaotic, just final. The kind of break that doesn’t ask permission and doesn’t explain itself. It marks the place where something inside me split because it had to, not because I wanted it to.\r\u003cbr\u003e\r\u003cbr\u003eThe layers around it are heavy on purpose. They carry what came before, the weight of endurance, memory, and trying to stay intact longer than was healthy. The white shapes aren’t answers. They’re pauses. Small moments of breath when I could still stay present without fixing anything.\r\u003cbr\u003e\r\u003cbr\u003eThe orange refuses to soften. It doesn’t blend. It interrupts. It’s the truth that wouldn’t stay buried anymore.\r\u003cbr\u003e\r\u003cbr\u003eRupture isn’t about destruction. It’s about clarity. About the moment integrity requires separation, even when the cost is high.\r\u003cbr\u003e\r\u003cbr\u003eSome breaks aren’t failures.\r\u003cbr\u003eThey’re the beginning of telling the truth.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Cheri Carandanis","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42167139860583,"sku":null,"price":5035.0,"currency_code":"CAD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0063\/3038\/4487\/files\/1_1770316083_12681.jpg?v=1770316108"},{"product_id":"the-longest-goodbye","title":"The Longest Goodbye","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eAcrylic on canvas.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e48x48x2\"\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis painting sits in the space between holding on and letting go.\r\u003cbr\u003eAs our sons step into their own lives, I find myself living inside a long, quiet goodbye. It is tender and proud at the same time. We have grown together, weathered hard seasons, and now stand at the edge of a new chapter.\r\u003cbr\u003eThere is loss in the distance, but also gratitude, strength, and anticipation for what comes next. This work holds that tension, the ache of change and the beauty of watching those you love step forward into their own lives.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Cheri Carandanis","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42168268554343,"sku":null,"price":4030.0,"currency_code":"CAD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0063\/3038\/4487\/files\/1_1770356316_53323.jpg?v=1770356348"},{"product_id":"rest-between-worlds","title":"Bone Tired","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eMixed media on canvas.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e36x48x2\"\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eCreated during a season of deep fatigue, Bone Tired reflects the body when it has little left to perform. The palette draws from bone and marrow, with small traces of iron red surfacing as a reminder that life continues to move quietly beneath exhaustion.\r\u003cbr\u003e\r\u003cbr\u003eThe figure arrived simply, without ornament or excess. Her lines are spare, her presence steady. This work does not dramatize struggle; it sits with it. It speaks to the body’s capacity to break, to repair, and to keep going, even when strength looks more like stillness than motion.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Cheri Carandanis","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42168466079847,"sku":null,"price":3635.0,"currency_code":"CAD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0063\/3038\/4487\/files\/1_1770358432_73873.jpg?v=1770358463"},{"product_id":"her-swag","title":"Her Swag","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eMixed media on canvas.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e48x60x2\"\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eHer Swag holds the balance between polish and grit. A confident silhouette rises out of a field of layered marks and color, grounded and self-assured. The dress functions like structure and statement at once, while the surrounding surface carries the evidence of everything it took to stand here.\r\u003cbr\u003e\r\u003cbr\u003eShe is not ornamental. She is anchored. This piece reflects the kind of confidence that is earned, worn comfortably, and carried without explanation.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Cheri Carandanis","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42168523260007,"sku":null,"price":5035.0,"currency_code":"CAD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0063\/3038\/4487\/files\/1_1770359514_86873.jpg?v=1770359538"},{"product_id":"burn-line","title":"Burn Line","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eMixed media on canvas.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e24x24x2\"\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eA force of color drives across a grounded surface, cutting through layers and leaving a visible path of friction and release. Marks are built, scraped back, and pushed forward again, carrying the evidence of a process that is both destructive and necessary.\r\u003cbr\u003e\r\u003cbr\u003eThis piece reflects the kind of burning that clears rather than destroys. The line moves through resistance, not around it, creating space for what remains after the heat has done its work.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Cheri Carandanis","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42168534106215,"sku":null,"price":1260.0,"currency_code":"CAD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0063\/3038\/4487\/files\/1_1770360607_93057.jpg?v=1770360633"},{"product_id":"not-just-a-number-1","title":"Not Just a Number","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eAcrylic on canvas.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e60x48x2\"\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis piece came out of frustration. The kind that hits when your life gets reduced to a code, a policy number, a decision made by someone who will never see your face.\r\u003cbr\u003e\r\u003cbr\u003eThe bar-like shapes started to feel like barcodes to me, rigid, repetitive, impersonal. The way systems sort and deny without ever touching the human cost attached. In that moment, I felt flattened. Measured. Decided for.\r\u003cbr\u003e\r\u003cbr\u003eBut the paint wouldn’t cooperate with that story.\r\u003cbr\u003e\r\u003cbr\u003eThe marks are layered, disrupted, and pushed back against. Color insists on presence. Magenta carries emotion and resistance, refusing to be neutral or quiet. Darker forms set boundaries, places where I stopped trying to justify my need to exist fully and simply claimed it.\r\u003cbr\u003e\r\u003cbr\u003eNot Just a Number is about pushing back against institutional indifference. About refusing to be reduced to data when the stakes are deeply human. It holds frustration, defiance, and the quiet strength it takes to stand up inside systems that weren’t built to see you.\r\u003cbr\u003e\r\u003cbr\u003eI am not a statistic.\r\u003cbr\u003eI am not a line item.\r\u003cbr\u003eI am not optional.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Cheri Carandanis","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42168936595559,"sku":null,"price":5045.0,"currency_code":"CAD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0063\/3038\/4487\/files\/1_1770314922_44205.jpg?v=1770383771"},{"product_id":"mental-block","title":"Mental Block","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eAcrylic on canvas.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e36x48x2\"\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis piece came from a season where everything felt paused, not because nothing was happening, but because too much was.\r\u003cbr\u003e\r\u003cbr\u003eThe stacked forms feel like thoughts that won’t quite line up. Systems I rely on. Patterns I trust. And the quiet pressure of trying to move forward while feeling mentally braced on all sides. The grays hold that weight, that fog, that sense of being contained.\r\u003cbr\u003e\r\u003cbr\u003eMagenta keeps pushing through anyway. It’s the part of me that refuses to shut down, even when clarity feels just out of reach. The whites and blues are moments of breath, small openings where relief tries to enter before slipping away again.\r\u003cbr\u003e\r\u003cbr\u003eMental Block isn’t about breaking through. It’s about staying present inside the stuck places. About noticing what’s happening without forcing resolution.\r\u003cbr\u003e\r\u003cbr\u003eSometimes awareness is the work. Sometimes standing still is the most honest form of movement.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Cheri Carandanis","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42169465602151,"sku":null,"price":3085.0,"currency_code":"CAD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0063\/3038\/4487\/files\/1_1770314703_79964.jpg?v=1770396334"},{"product_id":"manifesto","title":"Manifesto","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eAcrylic on canvas.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e48x48x2\"\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis work carries the weight of declaration. Built in layers of smoky whites, muted grays, and shadowed blacks, the surface feels weathered, almost eroded by time. Gestural marks, looping lines, and scrawled fragments press through the paint like voices refusing to be silenced.\r\u003cbr\u003eBold strokes of orange cut through the composition, raw and insistent, countered by deep greens that anchor the tension. The interplay of chaos and structure, absence and presence, creates a charged space where vulnerability and defiance coexist.\r\u003cbr\u003eManifesto is less about resolution than about presence. It is a visual stand, an insistence on existing fully, scars and all.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Cheri Carandanis","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42169465667687,"sku":null,"price":4040.0,"currency_code":"CAD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0063\/3038\/4487\/files\/1_1770315174_54903.jpg?v=1770396348"},{"product_id":"mmxix","title":"MMXIX","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eMixed media on canvas.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e48x48x2\"\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis piece marks 2019, the year my brain injuries changed everything.\r\u003cbr\u003e\r\u003cbr\u003eThe surface holds what that year felt like. Disorientation. Loss of clarity. The slow erosion of what used to be automatic. Marks are layered, scraped back, rewritten, and doubted, mirroring the way my thinking, memory, and identity were suddenly no longer reliable.\r\u003cbr\u003e\r\u003cbr\u003eThe cross is present, but it isn’t triumphant. It doesn’t resolve anything. It simply remains. Faith didn’t disappear, but it was no longer clean or confident. It lived alongside fear, grief, and a body that no longer worked the way it once had.\r\u003cbr\u003e\r\u003cbr\u003eMMXIX isn’t about recovery or redemption.\r\u003cbr\u003eIt’s about survival.\r\u003cbr\u003eAbout staying when everything familiar falls apart.\r\u003cbr\u003e\r\u003cbr\u003eSome years don’t get wrapped up with meaning.\r\u003cbr\u003eThey leave a mark instead.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Cheri Carandanis","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42169465897063,"sku":null,"price":4040.0,"currency_code":"CAD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0063\/3038\/4487\/files\/1_1770316260_93302.jpg?v=1770396377"},{"product_id":"nah-bigger","title":"nah...Bigger","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eAcrylic on canvas.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e36x36x2\"\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003enah…Bigger was created in response to the quiet but relentless pressures that attempt to reduce a life to measurements, outcomes, or limitations. The phrase surfaced instinctively in the studio, less as defiance and more as a recalibration. A refusal to be contained by systems that quantify worth, health, productivity, or identity.\r\u003cbr\u003e\r\u003cbr\u003eLayered fields of muted whites, slate blues, and earthen tones create an atmospheric ground that feels both worn and resilient. Gestural marks, drips, and erasures move across the surface like revisions in real time. The black lettering sits forward in the composition, direct and unpolished, while a small gold cross interrupts the field, subtle but unmistakable. Together they anchor the work in tension between constraint and expansion.\r\u003cbr\u003e\r\u003cbr\u003eThe painting emerged from a season marked by medical uncertainty and the ongoing work of rebuilding after profound disruption. Rather than dramatizing struggle, nah…Bigger holds a quieter stance, a steady refusal to shrink. It acknowledges the forces that attempt to define a person by diagnosis, data, or circumstance, and answers with something more spacious.\r\u003cbr\u003e\r\u003cbr\u003eThis piece is not about overcoming in a triumphant sense. It is about scale. About the lived decision to see beyond what is being measured and to occupy a larger interior landscape anyway.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Cheri Carandanis","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42169466814567,"sku":null,"price":2735.0,"currency_code":"CAD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0063\/3038\/4487\/files\/1_1770319326_62535.jpg?v=1770396454"},{"product_id":"echoes-of-chania","title":"Echoes of Chania","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eAcrylic on canvas.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e36x48x2\"\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eRooted in the rugged landscape of Chania, Greece, this piece carries the energy of wind-swept hills, sun-bleached rock, and the quiet pulse of something ancient beneath the surface. Layers of texture and color are built up, scraped back, and veiled again—mirroring how memory settles in the body.\r\u003cbr\u003e\r\u003cbr\u003eIt isn’t a literal place, but a felt one—a response to the land, the stillness, and the stories that linger long after the moment has passed.\r\u003cbr\u003e\r\u003cbr\u003eA painting about what stays with us.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Cheri Carandanis","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42169474941031,"sku":null,"price":3505.0,"currency_code":"CAD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0063\/3038\/4487\/files\/1_1770355604_18046.jpg?v=1770397035"},{"product_id":"cocoon-2","title":"Cocoon","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eAcrylic on canvas.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e48x48x2\"\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBuilt from an autumn palette of browns, ochres, and black, Cocoon gathers its energy inward. A central form anchors the composition, holding the surrounding marks in tension as layers are built, scraped back, and released.\r\u003cbr\u003e\r\u003cbr\u003eThis piece reflects the pull to circle in and take cover for a while. Not as escape, but as repair. The surface carries the evidence of that pause, the kind of stillness that allows something new to form before it’s ready to be seen.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Cheri Carandanis","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42169475334247,"sku":null,"price":4040.0,"currency_code":"CAD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0063\/3038\/4487\/files\/1_1770359043_26610.jpg?v=1770397077"},{"product_id":"come-with-me-1","title":"Come With Me","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eAcrylic on canvas.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e72x24x2\"\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eCome With Me is a triptych built on movement and continuity. Layered textures, color, and mark-making carry the eye across the panels, inviting both close viewing and distance. Each panel contributes to a single visual rhythm that shifts as the viewer moves through the space.\r\u003cbr\u003e\r\u003cbr\u003eThis piece was created in a season of change, carrying both tenderness and forward motion, an invitation to keep moving, even when the path is shifting beneath your feet.\r\u003cbr\u003e\r\u003cbr\u003eDimensions listed are per panel; combined installation measures approximately 24 × 72 inches (not including spacing).\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Cheri Carandanis","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42169502957671,"sku":null,"price":3645.0,"currency_code":"CAD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0063\/3038\/4487\/files\/1_1770398820_93291.jpg?v=1770399278"},{"product_id":"the-long-yes-a-triptych","title":"The Long Yes (A Triptych)","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eAcrylic on canvas.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e108x36x2\"\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe Long Yes is a triptych created during an extended, uninterrupted flow session over several days. The paintings came quickly and instinctively, guided more by presence than planning. Each panel holds a dark, atmospheric field layered with gestures, markings, and bursts of charged color that move across the surface like signals or breath.\r\u003cbr\u003e\r\u003cbr\u003eThere is tension within the work, but it never tips into chaos. Instead, the pieces carry a steady forward momentum, a sense of staying with the process long enough for clarity to emerge. The triptych reads as one continuous movement, a record of endurance, trust, and creative return.\r\u003cbr\u003e\r\u003cbr\u003eCreated in a season of rebuilding after profound personal and professional loss, The Long Yes reflects the quiet decision to keep showing up. Not with force, but with consent. Not with certainty, but with willingness. It is a visual meditation on what happens when you remain present long enough for something honest to surface, and then say yes to it.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Cheri Carandanis","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42169532907623,"sku":null,"price":6770.0,"currency_code":"CAD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0063\/3038\/4487\/files\/1_1770398676_61157.png?v=1770400382"}],"url":"https:\/\/helloart.com\/collections\/cheri-carandanis.oembed","provider":"helloart","version":"1.0","type":"link"}