“The dignity of the artist lies in his duty of keeping awake the sense of wonder in the world.”
― G.K. Chesterton
Who dis?
Hello and welcome! My name’s Randi. With an i.
I’m a painter, storyteller, poet, polyglot, translator, singer, and doodler who runs Candless Creative, an independent publisher of books and art.
As an artist, I work mainly in oils now, specializing in botanicals. I also work in acrylic, ink, watercolor, and colored pencil when the mood strikes. I’m currently on the Artist Registry of the Bellefonte Art Museum in Centre County, Pennsylvania, and I’m a member of the Art Alliance of Central Pennsylvania.
As a writer, I’ve published poems in Strange Horizons and Quantum Fairy Tales. Though my publishing credits are mostly in poetry and articles, my first love is long-form fiction of the fantastic variety.
Fair warning: I’m pretty lazy about my blog, so you might want to check out Instagram or Bluesky for my latest updates.
Favorite Artists & Artistic Influences:
Frida Kahlo, Stephen Gammell (Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark illustrator), René Magritte, Peter Winklbauer, Anita Zofia Siuda, Eric Markievich, Kay Nielsen, Alphonse Mucha, Evgeniy Vagin, Lynn Boggess, Elody Gyekis, Laine Bachman, James Farrah, Katie Scott, and frankly a million others.
Favorite Storytellers:
Fyodor Dostoevsky, Wilkie Collins, Flannery O’Connor, Anton Chekhov, Lev Tolstoy, Charles Dickens, C. S. Lewis, Wolfgang Borchert, Orson Scott Card, Neil Gaiman, Jane Austen, G. K. Chesterton, Stephen King, Amy Tan, Ray Bradbury, Brandon Sanderson, Naomi Novik, Yangsze Choo, Silvia Moreno-Garcia.
Favorite Poets:
Mary Oliver, Rainer Maria Rilke, Alexander Pushkin, W. B. Yeats, John O’Donohue, Bertolt Brecht.