Collage, Culture, and Community: A Conversation with Kaldric Dow

In the world of art, the journey is just as important as the destination, and for Kaldric Dow, experimentation is at the heart of his creative process. An artist based in San Antonio, Dow has built a reputation not only for his striking portraits but for his commitment to evolving and exploring new techniques. In recent months, his work has been showcased in the exhibitions You Don’t Own ME at Interloper Gallery and The Nature of Us at La Zona, along with a solo show at the Central Library, Heirlooms. 

In this interview, Dow opens up about the evolving nature of his art practice, discussing various challenges and constantly seeking the next thing to push his boundaries and discover new creative possibilities. 

Katherine Deck-Portillo (KDP): What I would really like to talk about is what you have going on right here.

Kaldric Dow (KD): This is a Kendrick piece that I'd intended to do in December. You know, with him coming up at the Super Bowl, I really wanted to get him. He's one of my favorite artists. I usually stray away from celebrities, because they come with their own stories and everything. I tend to go towards people that no one recognizes. For this one, I wanted to do his, and this is the start of a collage piece. Every collage starts with a base layer. There's a base layer, say, like in between here and places that I miss with the collage, so you won't be able to tell as much because there's at least some color in the background. Then I'll usually tilt the easel to where I can start using my pieces [of collage paper], like the pieces of brown that I wanna place on the top. And then I'll just go through and cut out the shape that I'll need. Then I'll start puzzle-piecing these pieces on there. 

Photo courtesy of the artist.

KDP: Where do you find your paper for this? 

KD: So the papers are cool because I usually get it from a multitude of books. But my favorite book to pull out of is this one here. It has textile designs, but it has different patterns from different countries and, you know, Asia, Africa.  I'll use fabric sometimes. I got all of these fabrics - typically what I'll do with those is stretch it over a full canvas, like that brown one is a fabric. Then I'll just paint the whole thing. Yeah, which I had a whole series on fabric, but those, like all sold. That was like maybe in 2020? 2018ish? So now it's all paper. I pretty much source from this book. I started to use this book a lot. Some of them would get down to where they have barely any pages in it. So by the third book I bought, I started to scan in those pages and then print them out so that I'm not just buying new books all the time. But then that comes with challenges because the printer doesn't print exactly what you need, like, sometimes it's not as bold or whenever you put the medium on it, it'll bleed out. These pages are like, you know are solid, you know? And then I'll have these different fabric books, too. So let me see, the one that I use, probably this one. So, sometimes when I'm using cloth, I'll go through and choose some of these wallpapers. And then it'll add like a nice element to it. Yeah, that's usually where I get my patterns from you know. I'm kind of working on somewhere I want to design the patterns myself in Illustrator and just make multiples of them and have them print it. But I haven't got that for it yet. 

KDP: I'm thinking about, you're talking about making your own patterns. Just because it's such a new technology, have you thought about using Artificial Intelligence (AI) to make patterns? 

KD: I haven't. But I'm sure that it could make some patterns. I've messed with AI for portraiture, like I've put in like Greek mythology, you know, like “Michelangelo’s statue, but black.” It’ll come up with these cool forms of these Michaelangelo [sculptures] in black marble. I think, this would be cool to paint. 

KDP: It’s so interesting the words that you have to use to…

KD: Get what you want! Oh, yes, it’s a lot of editing. And on some of them, they give you a certain amount of coins for words you can use. Then you use like 99 and it is like, well, I'm done for it today, you know? 

KDP: Yeah, you've hit your limits.

KD: And you know it's not always a win when using their technology because it doesn't give it to you exactly - you have to type in exactly what you want, which means there's a lot of revising of just the text and then it'll give you images close to what you want. So it's like you can't use exactly what's there. I use it as a way of thinking about ideas, you know, of what I would like to see. It doesn't always hit.

KDP: I was also thinking, and I just like looking at it right in between [here], you've got these two portraits and I think they're from your earlier career. And then right in the middle, you've got the collage. Where was that transition? How did you get to this point of moving into the collage? 

KD: These two were from a show I did in 2023 called Pastel Expressions. And so it was really about pastel - the light color of the purples and the blues. But then also the pastel as a medium, which is what I'm using on the backgrounds and for the highlights. These were 2023. If you want to talk about a series of work, I'll show you the first series that I worked on. This was a series called Black on Black. When I started in 2016 and those were for about three years, I was just doing paintings on black canvas. And then just African Americans; it's usually like my sisters, my family - I got twin sisters. This is me and a twin sister again. Then another one, Jacinda. I had her lay down as a model, and I put lighting on her. And so a lot of the black on black series are dispersed throughout different places, but I love this one. 

Photo courtesy of the artist.

KDP: It reminds me of Mantegna’s Christ with the foreshortening. I'm also teaching that right now so that it's fresh in my head with art history.

KD: Yeah, and I try to bring in art [historical] references sometimes cause it just connects with people a little bit more. This  was the first series in 2016 to 2017 is kind of when it started this. And then there's another one here. And now I maybe have like 30 to 40 in this series of Black on Black. This is me and my twin brother, I painted it back in 2017ish. 

KDP: So you have twin sisters and you're a twin yourself?

KD: Right, which is interesting because I try to play with duality sometimes. Then so that series. And then I did a series on fabric, which you’ve seen all of my fabrics there. It was just painting on different fabrics and trying to break out of “just the painting” box and using different materials. And then in about 2021, I switched to collage, which is what we see now. It’s the most prominent [series] that I'm working on. Now I'm bringing in different materials and it kind of feels like play again, you know? Because you do things over and over so much, that you kind of get tired of it. You get good at it, but it's like, I know this is good already. Can I challenge myself with something new? 

KDP: So the approach for you is it's a little bit of a challenge of the material. I'm also really interested in the conceptual approach to handling of the skin, right? There's so much to unpack right there. 

KD: Yeah, it is. I mean, with the skin, like from the Black on Black series, I was always trying to experiment. Well, can I mix purples? What colors are the skin tone actually made out of? Like what comprises? Because we see brown is like - there’s purples, there's greens. There's a complexity to it, and how do I show that in art? And that was a challenge for the Black and Black series. And then with the collage, you can see the play with purples and greens. If you step back, it looks like one one brown. But you get close and you see all of the different colors and different patterns that this complexion and makeup of things that makes this one personality.

Photo courtesy of the artist. 

KDP: It’s very nuanced. 

KD: Yeah, and then sometimes I'll throw in history which is cool with the paper. I don't know if you've seen her hair, but there’s this dragon. In her hair there’s this angel slaying the dragon. 

KDP: It’s almost missed!

KD: In some of them, I'll throw in Carravagio. I did one Carravagio in the hair and it adds that art history. It also makes it to where hair is complex as well. 

KDP: The hair. Acknowledging my own background, it's not something I will truly ever understand, but having conversations with my friends, who have that relationship with their hair. 

KD: It's a big thing. I did this sculpture back in 2021. When it was installed at MLK Park, I worked with the City of San Antonio, and one of the things was like the hair. I made it important because in the culture, hair is super important. However you style it or  don't style it is a thing. With the sculpture, the spheres were actually representative of hair, which is this big thing in our culture. I wanted to focus on that. Sometimes there's beads in the hair like hers, sometimes there's long and straight, and other times that complexity of the braid is important. Or the frizzles on the outside. It adds the culture to it.

KDP: It gives them personality too — that they're an individual. These are women that we're looking at, black women. Are they people that you know? 

KD: No. Like I was saying with Kendrick, which is when I was first starting, I was kind of doing celebrities. Because when you start, you want to do things that people know. In middle school, I was doing anime because all of my friends like anime. Then, as I got older, I'm like, oh, well, I kind of like hip hop artists. I kind of like these people and I fell into doing celebrity type deal. Then I'm showing them and people are like, “Hh yeah, that's so and so!” But then as I evolved as an artist, I don't want people to come in with this preconceived notion of who this person is. So I started with my family; I started doing my sisters, my brothers, and my mom. I can only go so far with those guys until I have to start photographing other people or just choosing pictures off the Internet. This is pretty much the people that I see — either Instagram models or a photographer's models. I'll reach out to them and ask, “Hey, do you mind if I use this?” Or, if it's an image that really connects with me that I think will connect with other people, then I'll reach out to them. So, a lot of times it's somebody who I don't think has a big recognition. 

Photo courtesy of the artist.

KDP: You are approaching this as a man painting these women that you find [on the internet] and how do you give them respect? 

KD: Well, for me, it's two things. When I do males, there is a strength that I always want to portray. 

KDP: Looking at these two, there is this really strong sense of masculinity with this frontal pose.

Photo courtesy of the artist.

Photo courtesy of the artist.

KD: Then with the women, it's like there's a beauty that I want to capture but then a strength, too. There's a strength with the tilted head up and then just looking over the shoulder. I really want to do them justice in the way that I show them as beautiful, but also strong, and get their personality out. 

KDP: You've said you've found them sometimes on Instagram. You  talk to the photographer, do you ever talk to the models? 

KD: Yes, yes. I talked to this one here, this model. She's in New York. I talked to her on the phone, which I don't get to do a lot. I talked to her and she's like, “Oh yeah! The photographer showed me your piece.” She was super excited. She actually ordered a print. It's super cool to get to talk to the model. The admiration they have for the piece as well. They may like it more than the photography because there's a little bit more that goes into it. That's been the only one that I talked to. 

KDP: Have you ever thought about asking the photographers to do dual hanging –- here's the original photograph with, how you’ve pulled out…

KD: The interpretation of the piece. That would be a cool show. If there is a photographer who has the portraits and then the interpretation of the photograph. I've never thought about that. 

KDP: I have a photographic background. For me, when it comes to approaching photography, it really is taking the time to sit and talk with them to get to know them. My undergrad thesis was a series of women in sports. I took it after they completed their activity, so it was really raw. 

KD: Breathing heavy.

KDP Yeah! I think about your taking this still image, this moment that's been captured, but you're pulling out even more. You're pulling out something that the photographer doesn't even see and shifting it. 

KD: I want to get more into photography, but I feel there is a complexity to it that I don't understand. I moved away from celebrities, and now moving away from people that I don't know, because I feel like there's a more authentic way I can curate portraits. Whether it's the pose or different things. The last half of the year, I've been inviting people into the studio and taking photos. Having people set up and do different poses, and I just have a cache of these photographs that I don't know what to do with yet. I know that for the next series, that's what I want to focus on. This one here is my mom and my two sisters, my twin sisters. I want to lean more into photos that I'm taking myself. It kind of takes me out of this headshot direction, but I think that it'll feel a little more authentic. I'm probably going to add collage with this one, but then have the imagery be photos that I took. 

KDP: It's very personal imagery, but you're thinking you're going to still use the same technical approach?

KD: In the faces I’m thinking it just may be painted because they're so small that the collage may complicate it too much.

KDP: Where would you apply the collage then?

KD:  The background is kind of like a curtain. I took a photo of these guys, I cut it out [in Adobe Illustrator] and pasted a blue velvet background in the back. That's gonna be collage I'm gonna do, but somehow make it look like a curtain. For their clothes, I'm gonna do fabric as well. For their faces, I think I'm just going to paint it because I don't want to overcomplicate it. 

KDP: Like this work right here? 

KD: Yes. But this one I know it's gonna take so much more work. One, it's experimental to see if it works. Two, there's three people, the details are much smaller. It’s going to take some love to put into it. I hope that the kind of love that I put into it translates. But it's always like that first piece that you do where you're like, is this going to work? And then you make it a series.

KDP: I like the use of the word “love,” because I think you can see not only the love that you have for these women, but also the love that you have for your medium. I'm truly excited to see this final work. 

KD: It's going to be something else because there’s not only the pattern, but there is going to be highlights and shadows in it to make it look wavy. And if that is even possible! This is an experiment at its finest. The patterns in here are going to look okay. Putting a pattern here, if I make this with brown, then I have to go in with the pinstripes and make it look like it's [different] material. Doing the skin tone should be fairly straightforward.  

KDP: I'm seeing something circular from the beginning of your career, but also pulling from your most recent stuff. You see that with so many artists — what you said earlier! You tackle something, you experiment, you master, and then you go onto the next thing. What can I do now? What can I challenge myself with? At the same time, you're challenging yourself and you're going back home. 

KD: I forgot that in high school, I did a collage. I don't know if you're familiar with the Visual Art Scholastic Event, they call it VASE. For Texas high schools, it's a competition and the piece that I put in ended up winning the highest award — the gold seal. It was a portrait. It was a collage of my family. It was me, my brother, my two twin sisters when they were babies and my mom in the middle. I took anything that I could find at the house, such as a bunch of cardboard, construction paper, old photos, and I put it together. Now, this was before I even knew what collage was. My teacher is like, “Hey, you can put this together.” Then ten years later, I rediscovered it and started using collage. Like you were saying, it comes back full circle. 

KDP:  I love that you're finding anything that you have at home. Are you familiar with rasquachismo? It is a Chicanx term, defined by Tomás Ybarra-Frausto, who writes about the idea of the underdog, and also as a Chicanx aesthetic of using available materials. You’ve moved from Houston to San Antonio, how has the culture of San Antonio influenced your work? 

KD: I was in 10th grade or 11th grade when I got here. We went to John Jay High School. We went to Fiesta and was like, what is all of this? We have [Latinx] culture in Houston, but it's not as highlighted. When I got here, I was like, this is crazy. The people dancing, the music, the food, the gritos. My brother and I were like, this is pretty cool, and was a culture shock. Once I got older and into the arts, the art world is kind of dominated by culture. You see loterias and papel picado. You see that everywhere that was about it. I always liked that style, but I always wanted to find something from my culture. Their culture is cool, but it's not mine. What imagery comes from my culture that I can highlight in art? 

KDP: And so that comes back to the collage. When we look at the collage, it has these beautiful patterns. I'm especially looking at this work right here in the corner, and it really calls upon the idea of the kente cloth. 

KD: This one was specially made for an African market. The majority of those patterns in there are African patterns, besides these kinds of American patterns. I researched different patterns and every culture, every country, has their own style of patterns. This one was another one that I was experimenting on. You can kind of see were much darker, blue and much darker blacks in there. I printed it on photo paper and that reacted with the sun to pull that color out. Now I realize I can't use that material. It’s always an experimentation. Is it archival? Is it gonna last forever? And that doesn't, I found out. These came from the book, which is why I liked the paper from the book so much, because they're consistent. Even the fact that she has the head wrap on it is kind of a cultural thing as well. I tried to make it to where there is culture with the lashes and the earrings. But how do you highlight that? And I got another series called the Heirloom series. I was working out of my house and then I got my studio and that gave me some free time to really experiment. I never would have done it if I didn't have this space. The black and white images are from a book called Women of the Black Panther Party (2022). It shows the leather aesthetics of the 1960s and 1970s. 

Photo courtesy of the artist.

Photo courtesy of the artist.

KDP: How do you choose to combine different images? 

KD: I want to get a composition that's not too big. This one is the first one that I did, and she's taking up way too much of the space. I want something that's at least maybe like one fourth of it. And I usually have two portraits in there, usually one in black and white and one in color. One is small and one is big. Maybe reference the 60s and 70s with an American flag, like Jasper Johns'. These were freeing and took a lot less time to create. They felt fun. These were so stressful because you had to stay in the lines and everything has to come out to the right proportion. 

KDP: They are freeing to you in terms of experimental and playful. I’m wondering if they're freeing in an internal way as you connect to  these historical social movements?

KD:  It lets me go into the 60s and the 70s and the hard times, but I enjoy the process of discovering. 

KDP: There is a lot of black joy in these collages.  When we think of the media portrayal, it's very much an oppressive view. I love this celebration within this, and it refers to the idea that you're having fun with these. 

KD: I don't ever want someone to see my work and feel sad. I want to show people smiling. 

KDP: There are couples, a mother-child, and a family here. 

Photo courtesy of the artist.

KD: These are from Ebony and Jet magazines. I have 28 of these that are shown all together, which is different from the 30 x 40 inches. This was my break away from the big paintings, an alternative to it. There is still a pattern, there is still fun and play in it. I always include some type of foliage or nature, to circle it back. 

KDP: It grounds them. They're not just floating in space.

KD: This series is therapy through art. They’re also important, there are historical references I was doing almost one a day. They always have this secondary portrait in color.

KDP: This particular one really speaks to me today. With the flag, she’s clearly speaking loudly. There is this woman in a suit, I'm not sure quite what she's standing on. 

KD: It’s not quite a podium but she’s elevated. These two [subjects] will always speak to each other. I always want one in color and one in black and white. They challenge and complement each other at the same time.  

KDP: Is she yelling at her? Is she saying we haven't done anything or is she trying to say, hey, we got to keep on going?

KD: Exactly. And that’s the fun part with the composition. I cut out first and I knew that I wanted her somewhere. And then there’s her and I noticed she's kind of looking up. Let me raise her up and make it look like she's challenging her. I couldn't go there with these big portraits. There's not enough freedom in size. Even expressions — that feels like my aunt or  it’s somebody that I know that shouldn't have been drinking. 

KDP: We’ve all made that face. We all make that face when we put a lemon in our mouth. 

KD: Yeah. I called it Heirlooms because I wanted it to be images passed down and not forgotten. I'll throw things in there like Lawry's  seasoning, which we use a lot. Then there's that element of nature again.

KDP: It grounds you. It reminds viewers that everyone exists in this green, lush, beautiful world. With the seasoning, we get a picnic could be happening, or a barbeque? 

KD: And the tents set back up there possibly. Then I started to play with the shadows of the Lawry's. The possibilities could go wherever. 

KDP: When did you make the Heirloom series? 

KD: Last year (2024). I had my exhibition at the library in November and I started to work on it in August. I made these specifically for the Central Library. There are 30 of them altogether, and I have 28 now because someone bought two of them. I wanted to keep them together, but at the same time that’s hard.

KDP: It's hard with the series, right?  They're meant to be shown together, but at the same time…

KD: People can’t take all of them! But they really liked these two. I may have a big public art project coming up, fingers crossed that I can use these images. There's this wall on Nolan and Cherry Street and it dips down. There's a Rubio mural up there now. The other side of the wall is blank and I'm thinking about using these images to go up there, but we'll see if I get it.

KDP: How do you move from the portrait style works to the public art? 

KD: I always liked mural artists. San Atonio has a lot of mural artists. I always dug the fact that these guys were out there on ladders in the process. How do you even do that? Some artists go and paint directly on the wall. Then some artists like Rubio and David Blancas will go and paint this polytab in their studio and then go install it so they're not getting beat up by the sun. That whole process is interesting. The most interesting part was what it leaves behind when you're gone. This impact that you have, the inspiration to the kids. 

I liked the public arts and I helped them with doing some of the installing. Then I got the opportunity to make public art, the sculpture, and it went to a whole nother level. When they reached out to me, they said, “Hey, we’d like you to create a sculpture.” And I'm like, “I do 2-d work.” And they're like, “No, we want you to design it and then we'll work with fabricators.” 

I had three different sketches. That sculpture was going to be a big tear drop at one point! Or a tree made out of braids! We chose to go with that one because it was the closest to my work. Through the whole process, I really fell in love with public art. People share with me that they run on those trails and they see the work and take inspiration. I want to do more. 

KDP: You want to expand beyond the gallery and studio space? I think that's what's so fun about public art is the accessibility. It is there for anyone to experience; you just have to go. 

KD: That’s the thing that I don't like about galleries and museums, is that some people don't get the chance to see it. Some people don't even think about a museum. Especially in my neighborhood, or my old neighborhood, “They’re like, yo, we don’t want to go to a museum. Why do we wanna go and look at this stuff from people from long ago or galleries and we don't understand it?” But if you put something in a neighborhood, you have to look at it. Now you have an opinion about it. You like it, you don’t like it, why? A sculpture is tough to like, I think, as opposed to just artwork that's on the wall.

KDP: You see it on the wall right and you can walk by the wall. A sculpture forces you to stop. 

KD: This is an object. We have to have a conversation now. I'm excited if I do get this public art project. Just the inspiration that it could give to like the younger folks or older folks in that neighborhood.

KDP: Who was your first inspiration? 

KD: Berkeley Hendricks. He does these portraits, they're usually a white background and they're just people that he photographed from the 60s and 70s. They have Afros and open button shirts and they just feel like family. So when I was in middle school, we took a trip in Houston to a museum and one of those pieces was there. That's when I first got interested in art. This looks like my family, my uncle — I saw myself. I saw myself in an environment that had amazing objects in it, and this was there. I was like, whatever this is, I wanna do it and in fourth grade, I started drawing anime. 

KDP: I feel like no one will ever admit it, but I think everyone starts with anime. 

KD: You draw what you like! Then you get older and you're like, oh, I need to make this work more about something – culture or something else.  

KDP: You're growing and you're more aware of the world. But as a kid, [anime] it’s a fantasy. We still have that youthful innocence, but then when we get older, we lose that. We get the reality of the world. And so anime can no longer sometimes satisfy what you need to get out, what you need to communicate artistically. 

KD: You know when I was younger, I wanted to be Dragon Ball Z. I wanted to be the big muscles and shoot the stuff out of my hands. I got older, I'm like, oh, it's not quite possible. I can still enjoy, and appreciate it. You realize that your art has a power to it. I don't really want to focus my power on just anime. 

KDP: We grow, we think a little bit more about how we challenge people when they look at art. 

KD: You realize the power that you have. A lot of artists have the story that people see their work and get emotional. I'm like, okay, I'm on the right track. It should make you feel something. As long as it makes you feel something, then I'm like, this is doing something.

KDP: You've made somebody stop and think just a little bit longer…

KD: Then what you would have if it was blank. Every piece that I make, I want it to be a stopper. Some don't hit. One of my friends asked me, “Every piece in your show you like, right?” I said, “No dude. There's two in there I definitely didn't want to show. I don't like it, but I know other people like it, so I'll put it up.” Not every artwork is a hit. You never know until you just keep doing them. You're gonna have some duds and then you're gonna have some successes.

KDP: What would you tell students who want to do what you want to do? 

KD: My brother is an art teacher and he asked me for advice to tell the kids when they're frustrated with their art. I don't think about it as something that's so serious that if you mess up, you can't redo it. Never go into a piece thinking you're gonna make a masterpiece, because then you're gonna be so stressed out on making a masterpiece. Go into it like this is just practice. Every piece I do, this is just practice. That way there is no stress on doing something a certain way. It's just practice, and if it doesn't come out how you want it, put it aside and do another one. Think about it as practice to get better.

Kaldric Dow currently has works exhibited in "The Nature of Us" at La Zona and "You don't own ME" at Interloper Gallery through March 29, 2025.