Horses, Art and Healing:
The Colorful World of Candace Platz, DVM
with L.A. Sokolowski, equinista
Candace Platz, DVM, has a way of being many things to many individuals.
To her equine patients, she has been a caring and compassionate veterinarian who also holds a degree
in non-dual healing, a Kabbalah-based modality where everything, including the mind/body relationship,
is connected.
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To her horse, Fynn, she is the Grand Prix
dressage rider, USDF-certified instructor
and trainer, and all-around champion
for equines in need, who has ridden this
unassuming chestnut Premarin rescue
draft-cross down almost seventy Grand
Prix centerlines (so far) and into the history
books. Together, they have earned
top regional and national honors year
after year; as 2019 drew to a close, she
and Fynn were named Year-End Champions,
Small (under 16 hands) Horse
Division, of the National Dressage Pony
Cup, and Fynn (AWSSR 2015, 2016, 2017
and 2019 USDF FEI Dressage Horse of the
Year) was recognized as Official Ambassador
of the American Warmblood
Society & Sporthorse Registry.
“I adore this horse beyond reason. He
deserves all his accolades,” she says of
her partner. “He really is the ‘little engine
that could.”
And to thousands of travelers who pass
each day through Palm Beach International
Airport, Candace is one of fifteen
emerging artists whose colorful imagery
welcomes visitors to Florida. Her 6’ x 3’
acrylic on canvas, Narwhal, was selected
for the Palm Beach Airport Exhibition,
“Artfully Exploring the Palm Beaches.”
“Candace is an incredible woman, and
an incredible artist,” says novelist, Anne
Clermont, who owns one of her original
works, Dandi. “I immediately connected
with her when she showed me her paint-
in her careers
as an equine
veterinary clinician/
surgeon,
as well as her
national ranking
as an adult
amateur Grand
Prix dressage
competitor.
The undersea
world, as in
Narwhal, is a
frequent feature in her work, along with
other natural forms. Relational themes
in her work are informed by her studies
in Non-Duality with Jason Shulman and
Brenda Blessings; other influences are
aboriginal Australian artist Margaret
Chatfield, shamanist artist Eve Goetz,
and Cuban artists Carlos Guzman, Jose
Fuster and the Brito sisters.
When her mother-in-law, 96, who once
sat on the board of the Baltimore Museum
of Art, asked how she knew when a
painting was finished she replied, “Once
upon a time I might have said when I’m
no longer interested in working on it. I
have since learned that while I sometimes
do lose interest, I always go back
until I love it.”
“There is a wonderful TED talk, by Uri Alon
on why innovative science demands
a leap into the unknown, that I recommend
for artists, too. He says creativity
requires confusion and uncertainty. From
him, I learned not to give up on paintings.
Eventually I finish them all.
“I know my journey with a painting is
over when I fall in love with it, eyes wide
open to all its imperfections and humanity,
as well as its clarity and singularity.
When I feel that love, I know my painting
is done.”
Discover more about this artful
equestrian at www.candaceplatzart.
com.
ings. Some help raise awareness of what
happens to unprotected horses and
donkeys – a cause near to my heart. She
also commissions paintings and donates
to The Brooke, The Equine Welfare
Alliance, and others dedicated to the
humane treatment of animals.”
Candace’s unique painting style stems
from a lifelong pursuit of multiple passions
from veterinary medicine to kabbalistic
mysticism, from technical diving
to Grand Prix dressage, from poetry to
animal welfare (She serves on the board
of the Greater Androscoggin Humane
Society in Lewiston, Maine).
Born in Bangor, Maine, she studied oil
painting for 10 years with William Moise,
an abstract impressionist connected
to Wilhelm Reich. She also worked
with J. Palmer Libby, a more conventional
teacher and student of Joseph
Sheppard, whose stylized realism was
in sharp contrast to Moise. She trained
in lithography, sculpture, oils, pastels,
watercolor and charcoal at the Museum
School of Fine Arts in Boston and
the Haystack-Hinckley School in Maine.
Her paintings have sold nationwide and
internationally.
The artful rider and healer has exhibited
at venues in the Northeast, including
the Kennedy Center for the Performing
Arts in Washington, DC, and much like
George Stubbs, her intimate knowledge
of all things equine is firmly rooted
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