BY WENDY BOWMAN BUTLER
April 28, 2021


Kaldric Dow’s paintings hit with power. Emotive faces break through soft fibers and velvet matte black. His work is contemporary and traditional all at the same time. It is stylized and graphic with faint screams of history and painterly techniques of the masters. Concepts are built up in layers of fabric, paper, and paint. The images seem simple and complete from afar, yet as one moves closer, they relay themselves through jagged cut outs and tiny details filling a void of representation that was undetectable at first sight. He pieces together figures—once invisible shadows. He gives them life they never had using cloth and canvas taut like human bone. His subjects finally appear—illuminated. They become unbreakable and forever present. Always to be seen and never erased.

WENDY BOWMAN BUTLER: Thanks for having us over today.

KALDRIC DOW: Yea for sure thanks for coming.

WB: So I always like to start with when and why did you start making your work?

KD: I started having an interest in art, like many other artists, drawing cartoons, anime, Dragon Ball Z, Pokémon in like 5th, 6th grade. People were like, “Hey you’re pretty good. This is good. I’ll buy it from you for 2-3 bucks.” And I was like you know what I can do this. Then in high school I started to learn about different artists. I remember in 8th grade I had an art teacher who started to tell us about different artists like Andy Warhol. We learned about Jesse Treviño while I was in Houston and I ended up moving to San Antonio which was crazy and met him. Just exposed us to different artists and I was like this is pretty cool. I started to make art and students would give me respect for making these things and putting them out in the hallways. I just liked that so I started to do it more.

WB: That’s awesome—Jesse Treviño. Did he inspire some of your work or did you just kind of pick his brain and have a conversation with him?

KD: I did not. So what ended up happening—the year before I moved to San Antonio my art teacher told me about Jesse Treviño and showed us some of his work with his uncles laying on the car. He would paint his family a lot and I was like oh you can make work like that and put it out into the world—that’s pretty cool. The next year I moved to San Antonio and a year after that I was graduating at John Jay with his daughter so he came and gave a speech at John Jay about art and how to be successful as an artist and as a person. When he was walking out all of my friends were like, “Go talk to him!” And I was like “I can’t.” There was this intimidation factor about him. But as I grew in the art scene in San Antonio, I started to see him more and see more of his work.

WB: I’m so glad you came to San Antonio and we have you here. I love having more and more artists around. A lot of people come from Houston—it’s a pretty cool art community here in San Antonio I think.

KD: Yea it is. It’s different too. This is really where I developed as an artist. Houston—I was in 9th / 10th grade and I didn’t really know the extent of art, of pushing, until I came here to John Jay High School. The teacher believed in me. She saw my talent. She saw that I portrayed my family in art and she started to take us on field trips. She took us to this one thing called VASE, which is Visual Art Scholastic Event and I ended up winning the gold seal, which was one of the highest awards for my art and I was like, there is something here. I can do something with this. So she believed in me, gave me art supplies, canvases, and things like that. It pushed me to go further. 

WB: Yeah that encouragement is so crucial. That positive feedback. While it’s good to get the criticism and have those structured critiques, I think some of the biggest turning points are from an art teacher believing in you. 

KD: Oh yeah for sure.

WB: That same thing happened for me too. I went into regular art freshman year of high school and the teacher was like, “You should go into the AP Painting program.”

KD: I know John Jay didn’t have the art program until my class was finished because then art became a big thing after I graduated. It was me and a couple of other artists. They made the AP Art program because the school was getting recognized with art. I wish they had AP Art while I was there.

WB: But you started it basically! That’s pretty badass.

KD: True!

WB: Do you ever go back and talk to students or anything? Or would you want to?

KD: I would definitely want to. That would be a really cool thing just to see where they’re at now

WB: I noticed when I was looking at it online and I can see it now in real life that your work has this layered depth to it both in concept and in material. What role does fabric, mixed media, and layering play in your work? 

KD: I’ll start with the layering because that was first. I work in acrylic so you have to let that dry before you go on top with another one. So I would paint a layer of this really flat skin tone and it would just be a light brown. Then I would go on top of that with a darker brown and just build on top until it was complete. That was layering in the first series that was called the Black on Black series. It’s pretty much a matte black canvas like you can see most of these in here and then just building browns on top of that to build the portrait. Most of them were family. So I am a twin and I also have twin sisters. 

WB: Oh wow.

KD: Yeah so those are the people that I portrayed when I was doing my first series. Those are the same two girls there [points at canvases on wall] and then it’s me and my sisters there. I just pulled people that were around me and just painted them. After the Black on Black series, you can do only so many before you get tired and get bored of doing the same thing. So I was like how can I stretch this to something else? I took a class at Southwest School of Art and there was a class about bringing different mediums into your art. We ended up talking about fabrics and different things so I thought I could grab a fabric, put it on canvas and paint on top of it. This wasn’t an idea that someone else had already, it was just like bringing different materials into it and in the last class I started to use fabric. It just adds another factor to the pieces.

WB: It’s so striking.

KD: I really like using gold fabrics because it adds a power and a royalty to the piece. In all of the portraits I do—I try to add a strength to it. Each fabric is different. Some fabrics will accept the paint and some will reject it depending on the material. 

WB: It’s almost like experimentation as you go. 

KD: Yeah each time. When you’re beginning it’s like ok this fabric is going to soak all the water out of the paintbrush whereas a fabric like the brown one doesn’t want to take any water. It’s water resistant so I need to make the paint thicker and each one is different. 

WB: It’s like a chemistry project.

KD: Yeah and it’s fun. That’s the fun part of it. 

WB: You do mixed media too so you bring in collage pieces as well right?

KD: The collage pieces I didn’t start doing until this year when I got bored of the fabric. I’m actually going back to what I did in high school, which is collage. I dropped it for a long time but I’m going back to it. It just adds so much more. Now that I’m older I know how to use collage to pull more meaning out of things. I can take photos from this textile book that reference old English and how they used to pose in pictures and how they used to dress. I cut that out and pull it into one of my newer pieces and kind of make reference to that within the collage. It’s a deeper process now—a more thought out process.

WB: A conceptually driven process.

KD: Yeah.

WB: I see that you often weave pop culture and history together in your paintings and that you even blend traditional representational painting with modern graphic techniques to do so. Even in the technique, you’re sort of showing the concept. I was going to ask how you choose those subjects and references and you sort of answered that, but are there any other references that you like to make?

KD: I’m now choosing the images that I know reference the idea of what I am creating. I am creating this self portrait of me, a brown man and referencing it with this old style of salon or how they used to do things back in the day and I am putting it in contrast with each other by painting over it with brown. I get my material from this textile book. For now, since I’m just starting on collage, there is this big textile book I use to cut out pieces. There are thousands of images from patterns to references. I cut them out and get all of my material from there for now.

WB: That’s really cool. What are some examples of the concepts you are working on right now?

KD: In this textile book there is a section of it that I use to cut out. You can tell it was a time when African Americans weren’t included in nothing that was recorded. There was this time where we just weren’t portrayed at all and there’s a whole section of the book that’s like that. I take a lot of that and use it in my work just to contrast the two.

WB: So in a sense you’re using images to fill a void of images.

KD: Exactly. That is well put. That self portrait was the first one that really referenced all of that. [points to self portrait]

WB: How did you decide to do the blue material background on that one? Is there a significance to that?

KD: There is and it’s kind of this subject of how the master painters used to throw velvet over a still life and I just set the background up that way.

WB: I noticed that you that you refer to your work as a manifesto—the work itself. What is the theme of your manifesto? And to whom are you speaking?

KD: The overall thing that I want to do in art is to have more representation of brown folks in the museums. This is where I started off—going to a museum in Houston in maybe 6th, 7th grade. We went there for a field trip. We went through and we’d seen all of these statues and we’d seen these nice abstract paintings. I was like you know this place is cool but as we were leaving there was this huge painting in the contemporary section of this black man who had this hat on. It almost looked like a pimp with the fur around it. 

WB: Who was it?

KD: I don’t know. I researched and looked into their archive and I want to say it’s Barkley Hendricks. This huge life-size painting and I was just stunned. I was like this can go in a prestigious place like this. And I’m like why is there only one in here?! Look at this class. We have like 50% black people and we’re not represented in this place but for one painting. From there I started thinking how do I make it to where it is more balanced? That inspired me to represent African Americans. Even in a place like San Antonio, we have black artists but we’re not represented as much. So how do I set myself up to where these paintings can be seen as important representation. One way I do that is by adding historical references to the art. So folks can say “Hey he knows about art history. He’s adding these references in there. Ok this is important.” But also mixing it with the brown skin tones, family, and things that are important to me. That’s the overall narrative of what I want to do is get more black representation into these places that have turned a blind eye or haven’t included us. That’s the main thing I want to do.

WB: It’s interesting having these pieces that you put out with historical references but then also sociopolitical references, and cultural references. Everything is all entangled into this one piece of paper. It can mean so much. I see that as you build these portraits out. It’s very apparent.

KD: When you put all of these things into one canvas you’re making it so much more important than just that piece of paper and now it means so much to everybody else. People who are political, people who love art, people who love brown people, you’re putting it all into one. 

WB: Where do you think consciousness comes from? And where do you think your ideas come from?

KD: That’s a good question. Did these thoughts and things that you want to do purely come from just you or were you influenced by everything else that you’ve seen subconsciously? I would say it’s a combination. The interest for art was always there and wanting to show something that’s personal. Wanting to show my family and wanting to show brown people on the stage. But how I am going about it is influenced by other people only because I needed context of how to do it. I knew what I wanted to do but how do I do it? Ok I see them doing it like this, and them doing it like this—let me make a blueprint. The original want to show your work is there but you’re influenced by how other people go about it. 

WB: When you’re working do you ever get into that flow state—where you feel like something hit you or all of your ideas have led you to this point and you have an epiphany while you’re working? Or are they smaller building blocks over time?

KD: I think it’s over time. I do get into a flow state where I’m just going once I know what I’m doing, I’m going and time seems to stop. It’s 10 hours before you know it. But I think the idea hits me after things in life happen. I made this collage of the self portrait and I went to a critique right after I made it at Clamp Light and we critiqued it. It was 10 artists there and everybody was talking about their art and then we talked about mine and they were like “Oh what if you start using historical references?” or “I like the idea of it being brown.” or “What if you do it this way?” So then I started to think about what I can do next. Right after that I made a really great collage. That one there [points to a painting in the corner of the room]. You can tell that it’s more thought out and it’s more pinpoint to the idea of what that one was. 

WB: So you were rolling off of that feedback.

KD: Yeah and even events in life that happen. You’re driving down the street and you see a billboard that says “Think about it harder” or whatever. And you’re like let me do that with the art and you come back to it. I think that’s how it happens.

WB: It’s an accumulation over time for sure but that flow state is a really important state to get into. There’s something that happens to your brain when you’re in that state and time is not a thing. You’re not thinking about anything else in the world but what you’re doing.

KD: You just go into a different world. I think that’s one of the things that is kind of specific to art is when you’re creative, you just go into this state of creation—making this better, touching this up. You know? And then you hop off and you’re like oh man I created this great piece.

WB: You step back and you’re like whoa how did this happen?

KD: Right right. Exactly. You think that it was 10 minutes and you’ve been there for 3 hours you know what I mean?

WB: I sure do. That’s one of the best places to be in. I think that’s one of the highest points of living and creating and being an artist. 

KD: You’re basically just being at that point.

WB: What struggles have you faced so far as an artist in your career?

KD: I’m always facing an anxiety before going up on stage or talking to people about the art. There’s always that point 10 minutes before you do everything. But even bigger than that is the struggle of last year when Covid happened and all of the Black Lives Matter, the riots and everything happened—I was really stagnant. I felt like I was using so much energy but I wasn’t. All of these ideas and concepts in my head about what’s going on and how can I portray it? How can I help with my art? I was stuck there. I was like I want to create but I don’t know what to create. I don’t want to make something that’s not helpful to the cause. So I was kind of stuck for that whole year. I was like why am I so tired? But it was kind of a mental energy that was being experienced. I wasn’t doing anything all day. I wasn’t sitting and painting for hours but I felt tired. It was mentally exhausting to go through all of that. At that point I wasn’t creating. I felt like I had a block going there. But then after my first show, which was earlier this year, I kind of got back into the strokes of things. 

WB: It sounds like what you’re saying is in that moment you’re a cog in this group of people and it’s exhausting and you’re thinking and thinking. It’s almost like you got back to being able to come into yourself, and work from yourself, and work from your own heart, your own mind, and your own brain. Because when you’re making work for other people or to be a part of a bigger cause sometimes it’s not coming from…

KD: It’s not coming from a genuine place. And I think that’s what it really was. I wanted to help so much with everything that was going on. Not just the protests and saying “this isn’t right,” but I was trying to do for other people so much that I couldn’t come from a genuine place with it. I was just frozen until that first show, making the collage piece, and now I’m able to come back into myself and create and be happy creating again you know what I mean?

WB: Yes, yes. It was like a pause. And having to take that pause is necessary sometimes. It took me a long time last year to figure out how to navigate through the fear and anxiety from the pandemic, from the suffering and from everything. We’re humans. We live in a global society and so we feel each others pain—people getting sick, people getting upset. It was a really anxious time. But it was the moment that I thought I have to make the work and not worry about making money off the work, or trying to figure out who’s going to hire me to make the work is when I kind of realized I have to make the work for myself. 

KD: Right right exactly.

WB: And if that moves someone later that’s just a side effect of it.

KD: There’s work for yourself and work for other people. It’s two totally different things. In one of them you have this free flowing I’m gunna add this to it and this to it. But when you’re doing commissions or work for other folks there has to be this clear cut—this is what they want. I find it hard balancing like, ok I am just going to take 5 commissions or however many commissions but then I need to work for myself. If I do too many commissions without working on something for myself I get down. Bogged down.

WB: What does power mean to you?

KD: There’s 2 types of powers. There’s a personal power and a power outside of yourself. One outside of yourself, like my whole mission, is being able to go into a museum and say, “You need more African American art up.” That’s power to be able to walk in somewhere and say, “Hey, you don’t have enough of this. All of the institutions should have 10-20% of this.” That’s a power that takes a long time to create but I think you can do it systematically and put yourself in a position to go be able to do that. That’s one of the things that I work on—is being able to be in a position to say, “Hey I’ve shown at the airport. I’ve done all of this. Now you can listen to me when I tell you this.” I think that’s a part of power. But there’s also a power of personal self—being able to go to schools like UTSA or SACC and tell a group of people about the art. I can sit and tell you how I do art, why I do art, and there’s a sense of empowerment that comes from that because people are really listening to you and you have the payments to back it up. Maybe that’s influence. But I feel good coming from that. I think that’s a sense of power too and it makes you more confident as an artist. I think when you’re confident as an artist, people can tell.

WB: Do you feel like your work empowers you as you make it?

KD: Oh yeah for sure. Every new series that I do, I am powered. In the beginning I’m like Ok Black on Black series oh shoot I have something amazing here. I’ve done 10 or 20 of them and I’m like all right the juice is dying on this. Then I’ll find fabric and I’m like oh man this is something new! This is something amazing! It’s like this contract and expand deal. Then I’ll find collage and it’s something new and powerful. Even other artists that I look up to, they’ll come to me and be like “What you’re doing with this right now—don’t stop that.” And I’m like man this is cool because I look up to these artists and they’re telling me that this is powerful what I am creating. It just feels great.

WB: Yeah absolutely, I felt that way after I worked for an artist in New York for a long time and she gave me positive feedback years later on my photographs and that is so empowering. Just the freedom to make the work you want to make.

KD: And then it be that strong and that powerful once you create it. 

WB: Yeah.

KD: You’re like I can do something for myself and it can be that strong. It’s a self empowerment.

WB: Yeah exactly. 

WB: What are your thoughts on NFT’s?

KD: That is exciting. That is exciting because we are at the beginning of NFT’s like when people were just hearing about bitcoin and it was a thousand dollars for a bitcoin and 3 years later it’s $50,000 for one. The potential of it is so huge. The concept of an NFT, a Non-fungible token, for artists, we can make our own creation in bitcoin, a value that’s on the internet that someone can buy. I’ve heard people were buying them. Say your traditional art collectors want a painting but now there’s a whole idea of a painting that never dies—that lives on the internet they can own. The concept at first to me was like how is that going to work? But now that I’m seeing more. There are people buying these things wanting to own the content for themselves that they can sell. It’s exciting.

WB: It is super exciting. It’s definitely going to be interesting to navigate or at least for everybody to wrap their heads around. And then part of me who is more of the suspicious person is like hmm I don’t know if this is going to last. Then the other part of me is like who really cares? Let’s jump in and make some money off of it. And if it’s getting artists money for the time being then hell yes, more power to you.

KD: I’m the same way. I was like really skeptical like you can’t put your stuff online and someone buys it like it’s a real piece but the more I was actually doing it I saw this artist called Beeple and I saw his story and I thought ok this is possible. With your work are you looking at doing NFTs?

WB: I’ve thought about it. I’m trying to figure out if it means that the person can own one print and if they can print the piece does that mean that they can reproduce it? There’s a lot of stuff that’s interesting about that because I’ve heard that you don’t own it just digitally—that you can have it as a print as well.

KD: Right like if they buy a digital copy can they go and make a print on canvas and that’s theirs now? I’ve thought of that too. I’ve thought like how much do they own this piece that they buy?

WB: I’m sure there is some legal terminology that’s written in there that protects the artist but it’s fascinating. I personally don’t know if I’m going to fall into a black mirror episode and live in a virtual room with virtual art but if there are nerds out there who want to do that and who want to pay you and me then I’ll do it.

KD: Yeah and if you create an NFT and sell it to somebody, you can also get a royalty if they resell it to somebody. That’s interesting because in the real world that doesn’t happen.

WB: I lived in Brooklyn for a while before I moved back here and one of my friends who I worked with (he is an artist as well) and he sells his prints sort of like that. So I bought a print from him and he said, “The way I do this is that for every single print that I sell, you get a dollar plus a dollar more for each [consecutive] sale.” Instead of doing a limited edition of prints he basically has an unlimited edition of prints, but when you buy a print, you make money off of every single print sold after you buy the print as the customer. 

KD: That’s crazy. I think that’s where we’re going with the NFT’s.

WB: But for the artist rather than the customer.

KD: Yeah for the artist. Just the range of what is possible. I’m thinking I will never buy somebody’s art online that I can’t hang up. But that’s just me traditionally thinking. I think there are a bunch of people who are going to be like “hey I want to be able to pull up my phone and show you.” I am working on an NFT. There is this app, I don’t know if you’ve seen it, that allows you to move a portrait’s face and have it blink.

WB: I saw it on your Facebook.

KD: Yeah, that’s something that I want to expand on. I think that will be something for my customers or the people who support me to be able to be like, “Ok I can’t have a physical piece but I can go on here and get one of the NFT’s”—to be able to offer that to them.

WB: Yeah both to collect and support. 

KD: Right. It’s a big world that I think I want to be involved in and at least know how to navigate.

WB: I mean why not? There’s nothing to lose

KD: There’s nothing to lose right.

WB: What advice do you have for emerging artists?

KD: Invest in yourself. Say you go to a 9-5 and you’re working for this person for 8 hours, pulling all of these levers but don’t forget when you go home to work for yourself for at least 2 hours. Invest that time first. If you’re young and you don’t have money but you have a lot of time, invest that time in yourself into your skill and it’ll grow from there. Ultimately that’s going to be the happiest thing for you is to be able to grow something that you’re creating. Believe in your talent. Grow your talent. Believe in yourself.

WB: Time is money. 

KD: Sometimes I forget that and I’ll be on my phone or watching TV and I’m like you know what I could be doing? I could be putting 2 hours into making a piece that would sell. It’s just about valuing your time. When I was younger I didn’t care about my time, but as I got older I realized my time is crucial. I value my time more. So I would say value your time. Invest in your skill.

WB: Thank you so much this was really badass. I’m glad to have gotten to meet you and I can’t wait to see more of your work. 

KD: Yeah for sure I can show you more. Thank you guys for stopping by. 

Photography and Interview by Wendy Bowman Butler | @wendybowmanbutler
Connect with Kaldric Dow on Instagram @kaldricdesigndow and see more of his work on kaldricdow.com