Home is Where the Art Is: Jessica Caldas

Jessica Caldas is a Puerto Rican American, Florida and Georgia based, artist, advocate, and activist. Her work deals with connecting personal and community narratives to larger themes and social issues. Caldas has participated in numerous emerging artist residencies, including the Atlanta Printmakers Studio in 2011, MINT Gallery's Leap Year Program from 2012-2013, The Creatives Project form 2018-2019, and Vermont Studio Center in 2020. Caldas was awarded The Center for Civic Innovations 2016 Creative Impact award, named Creative Loafing's Best of ATL Artist for 2016 and 2015, received the City of Atlanta Office of Cultural Affairs Emerging Artist Award in Visual Arts for 2014, and was a finalist for the Forward Arts Foundation's Emerging Artist Award in 2014. Her work has been featured at Burnaway, ArtsAtl, Creative Loafing Atlanta, Atlanta Magazine, Simply Buckhead, and more. Her work has been shown at the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, GA and is included in the collections of Kilpatrick Townsend. Caldas received her Masters of Fine Arts degree at Georgia State University in 2019 and received her BFA in printmaking from the University of Georgia in 2012. In her advocacy work, Caldas has spent time lobbying for policy at the local level in Georgia and spent time with the YWCA Georgia Women's Policy Institute at the 2016 general assembly to assure the passage of the Rape Kit Bill and in 2016 to stop HB 51 in 2017, a bill that would have harmed the safety of sexual assault survivors on college campuses. She lives in High Springs, GA.

While Jessica is accustomed to creating from home under normal circumstances, she’s discovered that there is nothing routine about doing so during a global pandemic. She opened up about some of the recent challenges that her studio practice is facing as she and her family adjust to social distancing:

“We (my husband, daughter, and I) recently moved to a new home in Florida where we turned the garage into an at-home studio for me so that I could also do my art work from home, since I'm the primary caregiver of our two year old. Theoretically, this means I'm already accustomed to being at home lot and dividing up my team well between [my] day job, art life, and family life.

The reality is that social distancing doesn't quite work the same way. For one, we're all (as in the larger we of the world) dealing with a certain level of stress and anxiety that no one can really say they're used to. How many of us have lived through a pandemic? 

My partner owns a very new restaurant and of course his business is being deeply affected... My daughter, who is accustomed to one or two activities a day outside the home now needs to be entertained 100% inside the home and I still have to maintain the day job work I'd been doing…

[So] long stretches in my studio [are] difficult to come by unless I decide not to sleep.”

With less time than usual to focus on her studio practice, Jessica has been turning to alternative creative outlets- from singing with others online to sending hand-painted snail mail to her supporters- in order to quell her anxieties and form inspiring connections with others. She’s been leading karaoke sessions on Instagram, sending out unique postcards created with her daughter, Aria, and even managed to build her daughter a brand new puppet theater (pictured above).

Karaoke, which piqued Jessica’s creative interests even prior to social distancing, has become a welcome, fun-filled social and emotional outlet:

“For me, I felt I needed to do something totally different to shake all this off so I started an online karaoke session on Instagram two weeks ago and had the second event last week.

Only like 15 people are watching at any given time, and only about 6-10 other people have sung each night I've done it, but it's been a blast and has shaken off much of the anxiety held deep within my gut. I plan to host a third karaoke night this week.

… I joke about it being a social practice performance project though its really just a handful of people coming together to sing.

Her postcard project with Aria is emblematic of the heartwarming encouragement that she provides for her daughter’s artistic explorations; a show of support that is further evidenced by Aria’s dedicated workspace in Jessica’s studio:

“I've been… turning some of my daughter's drawings into postcards. I draw on them over her paintings and then [send] them out to people who have requested a little snail mail creative love from me… I'm sending out over 50 post cards this week.

Aria's corner space [in the studio] is really important-I want her to be able to access ‘her’ materials on her own as much as possible so she can feel like she has ownership over it. It means lots of spilled paint, and learning about them all, but I think it's super valuable for her… [She] works in [the studio] about as much as I do.”

Jessica is mapping out a new series even as she continues on with these recent projects- and her studio remains stocked with her creative essentials:

The shive oil sticks are my favorite medium because I don't consider myself a painter and I can draw with them, but they have the look and feel of paint when they dry.

I keep lots of rolls/scraps of paper and panels about because I prefer them to canvas as a substrate to work on. I have lots of little charms and images that are important to me for different reasons…

First I am planning new paintings based on photographs I've taken of my daughter playing in isolation that aim to get at the anxieties of parenthood and childhood in the world we live in today. I had literally just finished a series of drawings based on these ideas, and now have even more fodder for that work. I've ordered some supplies I needed to start that work and hope that I can muster the motivation to start them.

Second, I have a series I've been working on called "Tired Bodies" and I've been using some of my time to create new stop motion videos for this work… I haven't shared any but I'm a little in love with them and they make me feel better as quick discreet thins to accomplish here and there.

To learn more about Jessica’s work, visit her website: http://jessicacaldas.com or follow her on Instagram @zinkaproject