About

A predominately self-taught artist, Calderwood’s intricate and decorative works are rendered through a personal vernacular of symbols and patterns. Recalling the private languages that underground communities of queer and trans people used for safety for decades, Calderwood develops these patterns and symbols though research into history, personal narratives, and pop cultural moments. They then arrange them into constellations to tell stories both personal and fantasized. 

Utilizing low-end materials like fabric paint, polymer clay, found fabrics and fibre tip pens, Calderwood explores ideas around desire, biodiversity, and otherness. Intentionally working with the tools of the everyday to express a more egalitarian approach to art making. They also look at how material practice forms its own language for safe and coded communication within hostile environments.

Flexing the intended use of their mediums, Calderwood’s work moves through the material ideologies of painting, drawing, and textile, to form images whose lines and textures teeter between thread and paint, blurring not just the binaries of their materials, but of their subjects.

Throughout Calderwood’s practice exploring social art making spaces has played a vital role in their development as an artist from early life to this current moment. From crafting in bible camp, To pagan knitting circles,  Printmaking classes at FCC, The DIY scene of Fresno, to Direct action groups in San Francisco. Creating with or around others has enriched their understanding of making and conceptualizing artwork.