Karen Caldicott is an illustrator and artist who is known in large part for her delightful portraits of a seemingly never-ending series of celebrities, created and sculpted with Plasticine animator’s clay. Her busts of notable characters from the worlds of entertainment, business, and politics have appeared in countless major magazines, including The New Yorker, Entertainment Weekly, and Rolling Stone. Caldicott gained much acclaim for her year-long appearance in New York magazine, which featured a lively weekly series of portraits in the listings section. And although she is known as a portraitist, Caldicott has branched out into interpretive and conceptual artwork as well, including the piece pictured with this interview which ran in Entertainment Weekly. Her sculptures are fun and engaging, hand-crafted with rich detail and imagination. 

MY LIFE:
I live on a dirt road, in the middle of nowhere. That “nowhere” would be Upstate New York, Columbia County, which is 100 miles north of New York City. It’s a country life that I always knew would suit me best. As a kid growing up in the suburbs of a pretty ugly industrial city, I was lucky to be able to escape the dreary housing estate with a quick walk over the railroad tracks to canals and farmland. In those damp and usually chilly fields I would stand for hours drawing; it was my solace. Nowadays my work does not involve drawing from life, but I do make sure that I get out every single day, bike riding, swimming, or walks and skiing in the colder months.

I’m English and went through the British Art School system. That includes Foundation, BA and MA, which amounted to a nine-year stint. In those days the UK policy was to financially support a student through college. So art school was free. In fact, you would receive a “grant”—enough money to live on. My foundation course at Loughborough Art School was strict and intense. This was to weed out the kids who thought art an easy option (easy and be paid at the same time). Tutors would tear up work and literally throw it out the window. This course was all about drawing (10 hours a day) and introducing you to a new way of seeing/looking.

Middlesex Polytechnic in the North of London was my next stop. It was housed in a palace on top of a wooded hill. Three years gained me a BA in Fine Art. A year or so traveling Europe and Asia followed before I moved on to the Royal College of Art Illustration department. Whilst the graduation exhibition was still up at the College, I received my very first illustration job: a book jacket for Jonathan Cape/Random House. I was amazed that someone could see a use for my dark painterly style, but it was a pivotal moment to know that, yes, you can be paid to do this thing you love.

After the Masters course, I traveled to Amsterdam, Paris and New York City. I had arrived in New York for a vacation, but soon realized it was where I wanted to be permanently. I found a funky basement loft in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. It was so bohemian—it was ridiculous, and so were the rats!

I’ve been lucky in that I’ve never had a full time job. I’ve always been self-employed. Which basically means weekends and holidays are the same as every other day; there are no real days off. Likewise, the notion of retiring doesn’t mean anything to me.

These days I’m supplementing my illustration income with an old passion: hunting for old junk and collectibles. I’m in a perfect location for this: Upstate New York is ripe for pickings. I’m drawn to oddities such as industrial objects, old auto parts, antique leather, work clothes—oh, and I love typewriters. I have a wall of old Underwood Typers. There are some things I won’t sell. Those are on that list. The internet is my sales venue, which can be fun but also stressful.

MY WORKSPACE:
My workspace is basically anywhere in my house or outside it. I often work in our gazebo at the edge of the woods. I need silence to be able to concentrate, so no music or background TV noise.

HOW I MAKE MY ILLUSTRATIONS:
The clay heads are made with a non-hardening Plasticine, (animator’s clay), a material that allows them to be reworked easily. I generally start a portrait project with a few really rough sketches, so as to hash out the pose and agree on clothes and expression. Of course this can change at any time along the way, but it’s a starting point. I work from multiple angled photos of the subjects. I grab images from Google and photo reference sites. I like to work from them on my iPad so that details can easily be blown up if needed.

The models end up being about eight inches high. Sometimes the art director wants them unpainted; the tone is then applied in Photoshop. I generally prefer them painted—I think they really come to life with the final touch of acrylic paint. I only finish the bust in 360 degrees if they are going to be seen from every angle, as they were for my illustrations for New York magazine, or if they are for an exhibition. Otherwise they are somewhat like props—I bring to a final the areas that are necessary for the project. Plasticine is not a permanent everlasting material; however it can be used to make a mold and be turned into a bronze. I have plans to 3D scan and print some heads, which would make an edition of a model a viable object to market.

MY FIRST BIG BREAK:
When I first arrived in NYC my illustrations were painterly. After a few years, assignments started to slow down. I remember one meeting with an art director who said that my work seemed dated and not fresh. At the time this was a real blow, but it made me start thinking of how I could go at this from a different angle. At the same time, I was doing personal work that was sculptural. One project involved making clay busts of family members. They were based on memories and a handful of grainy photos. The move to Plasticine in my illustration work was a slow realization but seemingly necessary.

My clay work was quite rough in those days—some of them looked like they’d been dug up out of the ground—but they had a certain charm. Fred Woodward at Rolling Stone gave me my first break. He had me make Courtney Love. It turned out quite nicely and was included in the American Illustration annual the following year.

At that time (pre-internet) one would set up appointments to actually meet with art directors. I had a ginormous portfolio that I would lug around. I managed to get some work, my first assignments coming from Sony Music, The Village Voice, The New York Times Book Review (Steve Heller!) and also the Op-Ed page at The Times. Bruce Ramsay at Spin was also a big supporter.

Around this time I met the wonderful Queen of illustration assignments, Chris Curry at The New Yorker. I became a regular...at least for a year or so. They would actually send us illustrators to theatrical shows or the movies to get a good feel for the way the illustration should go. I’ve not known assignments like this before or since.

MY INFLUENCES:
Influences I have to say are my family...Dad was an artist, brother and sister, too. We all kind of influenced each other.

MY MOST ADMIRED CREATIVE PERSON:
Stanley Kubrick.

Artists I admire: Stephan Balkenhol—he carves amazing heads and full bodies out of chunks of wood. And Ron Mueck—he makes hyperrealistic human sculptures, often oversized.

MY CREATIVE INSPIRATION:
Creative inspiration comes from my environment and from browsing old books/magazines and of course the internet. The internet has made living in the middle of nowhere like living in the middle of everything. I spend too much time on it, but these days at least I’m weaning myself off too much social media.

THE BIGGEST CHALLENGE OF WORKING ALONE:
I have to say I don’t find it challenging working on my own, I would have it no other way; I love it.

A MEMORABLE ASSIGNMENT FROM THE PAST YEAR:
A recent memorable assignment was being asked to make tiny clay busts of several famous British women, including actress Helen Mirren. The plan was to make them the size of an ice cube and the PR company was actually going to have them cast as ice cube molds. This never came to fruition, but it was a great idea.

Another assignment that never got to a final: I was asked to build a Moby Dick whale and have several families eating inside this whale, with lots of decaying bones and detritus that had also been swallowed. Of course the entire thing was to be made from Plasticine. This was for a Turkish advertising campaign for the air freshener Fabreze. It might have been my somewhat high quote that killed this one!

DREAM ASSIGNMENT:
My dream assignment would be that when England finally wins the World Cup, I would be asked to make a bust of all the team players. I would insist on a long, extensive sitting with each of them.

MY FAVORITE ART DIRECTOR:
I enjoy working with art directors who make me feel I’m very much a part of the project as a whole. A phone call is a rarity but can be very helpful. Simply being responsive is a minimum hope. But really...that they’ve come to me in the first place, makes any art director I work with a pleasure.

My best ever job came in early 2008, when I received a call from Luke Hayman. At that time he was creative director at New York magazine. He commissioned me to make a celebrity portrait in clay, weekly for a year....more than 50 heads, each one in seven or eight different poses. A lot of clay! They ran as small spots that accompanied the listings pages at the back of the magazine. The characters would be seen in several different positions, enjoying a night out (dressed in evening wear), dining out (clay food props included) or just hanging out enjoying the city. Making a clay bust under such a tight deadlines pushed me to work very efficiently. I went on to make 52 busts in more than 500 poses! Amazing. That was a great job... thanks Luke!!!

SOME OF MY FAVORITE ILLUSTRATORS:
Christoph Niemann. He’s just so clever and does it with such economy.

I admire many contemporary illustrators, some of whom are portrait artists. I understand what they have to go through to get that perfect feel of a subject. If I was an art director I would want Jeffrey Decoster in my publication any day!

Liz Lomax is a lot of fun, vibrant and always gets great likeness. Steve Brodner—he’s smart and has sound politics. R.O. Blechman is not a portrait artist, but he’s a good friend (and neighbor up here). He is a driven, intense and sweet man, and that line of his, it just keeps waving and walking. I love it.

OTHER WORK:
Besides traditional illustration, I’ve been going into the world of private portrait commissions. I’m also enjoying working on repurposing objects, with collage or paint, turning an old broken object into a new sculptural piece. I sell things on Etsy and also have a booth in an antique center in the Berkshires.

HOW I PROMOTE MYSELF:
I promote myself by various means, which includes printed postcards, getting my website out there via blogs, Facebook/Instagram. I stay clear of sourcebooks, and try to avoid mass emails. But yes, it’s very important that the art director’s memory is jogged that you’re still alive!

ADVICE FOR SOMEONE STARTING OUT:
Years and years at art school is just delaying the process. Get out as soon as you can, learn as you go.

See more Karen Caldicott illustrations, new work, and updates here:
Karen Caldicott website