Art & Life with Emily Caldera aka Kaiden Jane

Today we’d like to introduce you to Emily Caldera aka Kaiden Jane.

Emily, please kick things off for us by telling us about yourself and your journey so far.
I was raised in a very artistic family- my relatives were all creatives in every field of performing and visual arts. My mother encouraged me to draw ever since I was little so I could stay out of her hair, and it resulted in me coloring on every single surface I could get my hands on. In school, I would always get in trouble for doodling on school work instead of listening, but I loved drawing so much I couldn’t get enough of it!

When I was 10, my family and I became homeless, and my mom got sick. The only way I was able to get through it all was being able to make art that conveyed my emotions. When I was 11, I decided I wanted to pursue art as a career so that I could help sustain my family in the future. I asked my mom if I could enroll in the public charter art school in Tempe, New School for the Arts and Academics, and I stayed there from 6th grade till I was a senior in high school.

I really cultivated my love of art and made vast strides in my improvement thanks to the faculty there at NSAA. My art teachers Kyllan Maney and Matt Dickson really pushed me to be the best I could be and presented amazing opportunities I could have never imagined. Gallery shows, public murals, working with the city of Tempe, and having my original paintings sold were things I never thought I could accomplish at such a young age. Without the strong support of my family and teachers, I don’t think I would have gotten as far as I did with my art.

Can you give our readers some background on your art?
I would like to call myself an Illustrator, but I think that is just the very basic term that I use for myself. I really love to do everything that involves drawing and painting. I love to do classical fine arts: still lives, life drawing/painting, and mastercopies. But I really love making more entertainment themed art. I love to design characters and their worlds that go with their story. I also love to make very anime-inspired illustrations since it is a HUGE inspiration and a big part of my life. Most recently I have gotten into animating because of school, and although I am trying to get better at it, I really love seeing characters I make come to life.

What I want to do with my art is to create something that inspires people in some way. I work with children, and I really want to create a piece of medium that they will look at and feel inspired. I want to be inclusive with my work as much as possible. I want every person who is a person of color, member of LGBTQ+, or just not part of the norm to feel included. I am a Mexican American who is nonbinary, so I didn’t grow up seeing people like me well represented in media. I want to be part of the generation that changes that. Working with kids has completely changed my world view, and seeing them create things and feel things because of MY art is very rewarding. Ultimately I just want to create things that my mom will be proud of since she is the reason why I keep doing art.

I want to show people that getting to the point of skill where I am at currently didn’t come magically. I have left most of my old art from when I was 12 online, so I can show people that I worked hard to get where I am. Some kids have gone up to me saying how they will never get to where I’m at with their art, and I never want to hear that again! A LOT of my old art was cringey or ugly, but I keep it to show my progress. I want future artists to know that they just have to keep drawing and improving their skills and by the time they are my age they will surpass me!

What would you recommend to an artist new to the city, or to art, in terms of meeting and connecting with other artists and creatives?
I found that social media has helped me connect with a lot of other artists. A lot of my best and close artist friends I met using social media.
In today’s day and age its a lot easier to connect with people around the world in a much larger scale. I’ve made friends in New Zealand, the UK, Canada, and even in some far off states in the US all thanks to sites like Tumblr, Instagram, and Twitter.

Artists want to meet other artists with the same interests as them so even doing something so simple as going to an “explore” page can be that first connection! Just be nice and friendly, and I’m sure everything will work itself out.

What’s the best way for someone to check out your work and provide support?
You can see some paintings I did or worked on in Tempe and Mesa! Along Mill Avenue, there are newsracks with my art on them, on Dorsey and Apache Boulevard there is a small mural that I helped with my high school, and along Main Street in Mesa next to the Desert Eagle Brewery I created a mini mural that hangs in their outside lounge. You can also find and purchase my artwork over at my high school New School for the Arts in Tempe, or at Art One Gallery in Scottsdale.

You can find more of my work online through my portfolio! There are links to my different social media as well as links to my ko-fi and storenvy.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://kaidenjaneart.wixsite.com/portfolio
• Email: kaidenjaneart@gmail.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/kaiden_jane
• Twitter: twitter.com/kaiden_jane
• Other: ko-fi.com/kaidenjane

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