Today we’d like to introduce you to Daniel Calderon.
Daniel, please kick things off for us by telling us about yourself and your journey so far.
An eventful day of my youth stands out; I fell overboard a ship at sea and was captured by a humpback whale, who carried me to shore on its back, blasting spouts of water all along the way. As we reached the shore, within a few hundred feet, a nose-diving pelican scooped me up like a fish and carried me to the beach. In the sand, I lay for two days until the rescue helicopter arrived. The man with the visor helmet reached down from the rope, grabbed me by the ankle, and pulled me up to the rescue vessel. That is how my story began. How I ended up at grad school for a degree in visual art, well I’ve been scratching my head ever since trying to figure that out.
Can you give our readers some background on your art?
My artwork is a mixed bag. I like to do things on a whim and not fully think things through, which leads to all kinds of subject matters being explored. I actually prefer my creative flow to work in this way, at least for now. I create sculptural objects, which start out as hand-sketched ideas before being sculpted digitally. I birth my digital models with a 3d printer. But my workflow is not all digital; I only use the computers for the hard parts. After printing there is usually a lot of gluing, patching, sanding, finishing, and painting. Then after taking a moment to languish, I place my hand on my chin for a little while in contemplation of the work. The whole process ends up being pretty labor intensive. A good muffin and a frothy matcha latte keeps me going. Regardless, in the end, all of the personal satisfaction from making the artwork is there for me. The message inherent in my work is not immediately visible for others to see in the objects that I create. Seemingly, it usually takes someone weeks of looking at my sculpture before they begin to see the bigger picture of its content as if it were clouded on the surface by the essence of my own complex personality. It’s a mystery to me how or why that is. I hope people eventually see the interchange of these forces at play when looking at my artwork. I hope, also that they see the free-spirited nature of creativity that art-making affords the artist.
Any advice for aspiring or new artists?
My advice to other artists is don’t be afraid to think small. Growing up everyone usually tells you to think big, and that’s always been great advice too, but thinking small also has its place in the arts.
What’s the best way for someone to check out your work and provide support?
The things that I make can be seen sporadically at student art shows that usually occur at the University of Houston. The annual student art exhibition at the Blaffer Art Museum is a good place to see my latest and greatest. Besides that, or the occasional art show at Third Space Gallery in the Fine Arts building at the KMC McGovern School of art, I’m pretty low key with my artwork (although my peers and professors get to see my work at bi-monthly critiques). People can still support my work by engaging with me on social platforms such as Instagram (follow me! @dacaldera). I value that the most at the moment.
Contact Info:
- Email: dacaldera@gmail.com
- Instagram: @dacaldera
Image Credit:
David Nguyen
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