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about Caldwell
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Biography:
Partial Client List:
National Geographic Publishing Simon & Schuster Walt Disney Studios Motion Picture Production Penguin Random House Hampton Brown Infoworld Exhibitor Magazine Education Next Magazine POZ Magazine UNH Magazine Night Sky Magazine Dolphin Log Magazine Sutter Home Winery Community Interface Services Moses Cone Medical Center Questex Media Beaudry Media Bruce Sanders Design Redding Advertising, Inc INterview with Caldwell:
How old were you when first realized you wanted to become an artist? Ah, that would be a week ago Tuesday. I was 27. (I’m 43 this week :) Just kidding. I'm old. Methuselah old. Old enough to make a Methuselah reference, whoever he was.... Actually, the first I remember considering it might be a good idea to become an artist was when I was a teen-ager. I remember sitting at the dead end with a few friends, all of us three-reefers to the wind. I was looking at a Yes album cover (Roger Dean), and I remember exactly what I was thinking. I thought: “Woah: bitchin'! - I’d just moved to California and was learning to pepper my Boston-accented, teenage utterances with California phrases like woah, bitchin’, awesome, and dude. I became particularly adept at “Howdy.” Do you still have any of your early artwork? A few pieces. I moved a lot when I was in college, which always seemed to require a belongings purge; most of my early artwork didn't survive my nomadic lifestyle. Have you studied art formally? Many moons in college. Ended up with an MFA. Is there an artist whose work you admire? What is it about their artwork that intrigues you? There’s a slew of humorous illustrators, fine-art illustrators, conceptual illustrators, cartoonists (Bill Watterson is a brush & ink master, as is Walt Kelly); and there are contemporary, not-quite so contemporary, and just plain old, long-gone, long-dead illustrators whose work I whole-heartedly admire. I’ve always loved T. S. Sullivant’s line drawings. He was a real master of fluid line, of characterization and a studied realism he could bend at will. What are the sources for your inspiration? Do you have a muse? Do you have a process you employ to generate ideas? I like it when an idea comes to me out of the blue and I don’t have to give it chase; but that's not always the case. Other times it takes several grueling minutes of staring at a blank page before an idea presents itself... or I might make a list of concepts to explore, visually, and literally. At some point an idea will come from the juxtaposed images and topics. When the idea does arrive, it's instantaneous, but to get to that point might require some aligning with the universe, getting aimed directly into the wind, mouth open, waiting for flies... oh, wait, wrong reincarnation... What clues might you provide to help viewers understand your art? I like to incorporate a joke, or some fun, or a bit of whimsy - not that every single image I make is humorous (okay, most are), but I think the irrational world is a much better place when we see the humor in it. Most events seem to happen with little reason and less rhyme, and not much ulterior plan. I Finding the humor in this ludicrous, haphazard life is a way to give it some sense of... sense. Do you have cultural references to which you gravitate? I do. I don’t think I could list them, though. Making those references is a part of the inspired part of my work: they find me, I don’t find them. How do you set up your job when you get a new contract? I go over the text or project description and get ideas as I’m reading. I make quick, rough sketches if the project calls for them, though I prefer to make a bunch of ink drawing that are ready to go, and then pick between them. If there are photos of actual objects, it usually requires a little more planning, but not always. It can still be fast, though it can also sometimes takes a few days to chip away at it, let my viewpoint shift - if there's time; if the deadline is short, then it's coffee-time and caffeine-fueled inspiration... What tools do you use most in your work? When there's a photo of a real-world object incorporated into my work, I try to do the photo shoot first. Then I draw. Ink on paper, or digital on a tablet. What is your favorite activity when you take a break from the studio? Going to restaurants, bumming around on the beach, walking through the “Ye-Olde-Town” part of the city. What would be your dream illustration assignment? I’d love to see my work used as advertising illustration for an opera house or an art museum, - or maybe for an orchestra. Now that would be bitchin'. |
