Carmen Cano is an object-maker born in Madrid, Spain. She firmly believe in work, not inspiration. By assembling and connecting objects, images or materials into unexpected ways they radiate and evoke their own essence, but also contaminate their neighbors. Though she loves working in all kinds of media, she has had an especially long personal exploration of calligraphic inks and paper, in some ways the deepest, most original and primitive medium. She's also a constructor with a love of tools, leading to a long series of small sculptures, hand-made boxes, books and many other unusual objects.

Common to it all is a pretty elaborate but precise & consistent iconography, its symbology rooted in nature. Always water, air, earth, fire, salt and sun; the life that is created by these and who itself creates through these.


Biography
From Madrid, Spain, Carmen Cano has been living and working in the U.S. since 1997. Her studies in Madrid combined both fine and graphic arts, and she was an early pioneer in the use of computers in graphic design. As an artist she was involved with other experimental artists, writers and musicians that blossomed in Spain in the wake of the death of Franco and the coming of democracy. She exhibited in a number of Madrid galleries, and in 1991 was awarded 2nd prize in the Biennial of Young Artists in the Mediterranean (Bolougne, France). She's worked on many projects for major publishers, the Spanish government, the Barcelona Olympic Games and the Art Expo of Venice among others.

Moving to Seattle, since coming to the United States she has quietly but persistently explored new creative techniques of all kinds. She currently oversees new media design and operations at a major media company in seattle.