December 8, 2021
Transcription Dorielle Caimi: Paintings & Prints | Angst & Grace
Anne Kelly (00:13):
This is Art in the Raw. I’m your host Anne Kelly today’s guest is Dorielle Caimi. Thanks for joining us tonight. And where are you at? Yeah, you
Dorielle Caimi (00:24):
Studio. It’s like, it’s like a 12 minute drive from my house
Anne Kelly (00:29):
And Santa Fe, but we’ve never actually met in the real world. I, my brother introduced us, but I think the first time I saw one of your images was the, the mermaid painting that was on the cover of the slash Southwest contemporary
Dorielle Caimi (00:46):
That made the cover.
Anne Kelly (00:49):
So you’re an oil painter. A lot of people have moved to acrylic just because it dries faster is a little easier to deal with that type of thing. Oil has held your attention.
Dorielle Caimi (01:02):
Yeah. I don’t know what’s wrong with me. I just, I, you know, I have, I have dealt very little with acrylics. I don’t know something about the, the, the history of oil painting has always intrigued me and workability of it. It’s very buttery. It’s very forgiving. Um, I like that it takes a long time to dry backside is that, you know, it can be a little bit, fumes, but you know, from what I hear about acrylics, those can actually have some fumes too. So I just practice good studio safety and stick with oils.
Anne Kelly (01:35):
Got some good, good ventilation in the studio then.
Dorielle Caimi (01:38):
Yeah. Yeah. I open all the windows when I can. Um, and if it’s like really cold outside, I have a fan that kind of hits, uh, hits me while I’m working and then blows the paint, smells away from me. And then I have, you know, if I, if I’m gonna like cover a whole section of paint, that’s going to off gas, we’ll do that at the end of the day and then leave and let it dry overnight.
Anne Kelly (02:02):
Well, I think that’s kind of like with photography working in the dark room when you’re working in the analog dark room, there’s that whole issue of, of chemistry, but I’ve also heard with a lot of the digital printing processes. There’s also maybe some funky things within the, in the pigment inks.
Dorielle Caimi (02:19):
Yeah. I, I used to love working in the dark room back in, um, art school and they did warn us like some of those, some of the baths were a little bit not great to inhale, but, and I missed the dark room
Anne Kelly (02:33):
Thinking about the dark room, where if you spent time in there, are you, you smell that smell. And to most people, it would smell terrible, but
Dorielle Caimi (02:40):
It’s like burnt hair and I just love
Anne Kelly (02:41):
It. And you’re like, Ooh, yes, that’s amazing.
Dorielle Caimi (02:45):
Yes. It just reminds me of like, just this quiet incubate incubation sort of space, this dark and womb. Like, I love it. I miss it
Anne Kelly (02:55):
To school in Seattle, Washington.
Dorielle Caimi (02:58):
Yeah. I to Cornish college of the arts
Anne Kelly (03:00):
In Seattle. Yeah. And you did a BFA. So as part of that, you probably studied a little bit of everything.
Dorielle Caimi (03:07):
Yeah. Yeah. The, the program had us have two disciplines and so I chose painting and then I wanted to do photography and because of the way the schedules lined up, I didn’t get to do enough as much photography as I wanted to do. So I did a lot of printmaking, but I got enough photography. And to be able to know how to shoot my own references and light and use Photoshop and understand the terminology surrounding photography,
Anne Kelly (03:33):
in and aspects of your work are kind of photo realistic. Do you use photography or photographs as reference for your
Dorielle Caimi (03:42):
Most of the time? Yeah, sometimes, you know, I’ll paint something from totally from my head or I will use a mirror or I just like, copy the photograph exactly. Start with a specific face and then sort of mutilate it for lack of a better word or alter it. So it looks different just to play with it a little bit, but I typically start with a photo reference so I can have like a reference for the anatomy and the composition. So I’ll usually get a model in and photograph him or her and have him do a bunch of poses for ideas that I have for paintings. And then, then I start to look through my photos through bridge or whatever, and then choose some and then start sketching and then transfer the sketch to
Anne Kelly (04:27):
That’s something I did not know before we started this conversation. I typically do it well, since we’re talking about your, your paintings, I’m going to pull up some of them. And I did notice there’s some drawings on here that are graphite on paper. So that’s something you do.
Dorielle Caimi (04:42):
Those are really old. I haven’t drawn in a long time, but I still like to have that on my website, just to show that I have drawn in the past, I used to draw
Anne Kelly (04:52):
With your paintings. There’s kind of the photo realistic aspect of it. And then for lack of vocabulary parts with the poppier colors, take them to more of an abstract place. Is that
Dorielle Caimi (05:05):
That’s, that’s absolutely right. I actually, Cornish actually ended up being a pretty conceptually based art school. And so they, weren’t very supportive of my learning, how to paint the figure realistically, which was disappointing for me, but I did learn how to appreciate abstract and conceptual art. And so I wanted to be able to kind of marry the two art genres together. So, you know, classical figurative painting and like contemporary,
Anne Kelly (05:35):
Which is something you do very well, where you working on painting figures in kind of a photo realistic way prior to attending.
Dorielle Caimi (05:45):
I definitely had an interest in it. I’ve definitely gotten better as I’ve had more practice. Um, but when I, uh, graduated from art school, I said, okay, that’s it. I’m going home to New Mexico. I’m going to get a puppy, and then I’m, I’m going to paint whatever I want. And I’m going to throw all the stuff I learned in the trash and just do what I want. And so then I really started to, uh, hone in on the figure and push myself to understand anatomy. And, um, it always had a, uh, the knack for it, but I wanted to really see how far I could take that skill of mine, but still be relevant in today’s art world. How did my friends have the same challenges? And so they did say, yeah, I had to, I mean, it was good to know what was out there. It was good to know the history of art and all of that. But then I realized I was going to make artwork that was authentic. I needed to tap into my own voice. And so that’s what most of my friends have ended up doing those ones who have pursued art,
Anne Kelly (06:44):
You are known for making paintings of women that are just really honest, real and not airbrushed and, and not sexualized real. Yeah.
Dorielle Caimi (06:56):
Yeah. I, I mean, first of all, it’s more fun to paint that the realistic, uh, you know, realistic flesh, um, with all of its flaws and imperfections, but I also think it’s lacking in, um, especially the genre of oil painting, the history of oil painting. You see a lot of women who were painted, um, kind of through the male gaze. So there’s kind of a different take on how they are portrayed. I mean, during the Renaissance and around that era, you do have women who are much more full-figured, which I actually loved. And I thought, I want to kind of bring this back, you know, bring back some more, uh, realism of, of the human form, particularly as it pertained to female form. So, so that was kind of, two-fold one that it’s fun to paint the flesh. And to that I felt it was sort of lacking
Anne Kelly (07:41):
In your artist’s statement. I picked up two words that I really love, uh, grace and angst. And I just love the pairing of those two words. Could you, um, talk a little more about that?
Dorielle Caimi (07:53):
Yeah. I’ve, I’m really obsessed with, um, dualities and marrying opposites. Um, and I, I love like for example, the emotion crying through or laughing through tears, you know, that’s a fantastic, or, or a very fascinating emotion to me marrying the idea of darkness with the light humor, with the sadness, or I like to sort of wait into the deep waters of difficult human experiences and kind of buy into them with a sense of humor with bright colors and, and with, um, the symbolism. Um, so the grace and the angst sort of fell into an idea that they, that you can kind of be both and, and, and that I maybe could express both through my work. And also, um, I really love the idea that no individualist singularly, anything. So I like the idea of conveying, um, complex emotions through my work. A lot of women is, um, as soon as we hit puberty restorative to find how we fit into the mold of what what’s appropriate, um, for female or acceptable for being female in contemporary society.
Dorielle Caimi (09:04):
But I definitely think that in history, women have been portrayed more like singularly, like the mother or the witch or the seductress, um, I’m, I’m sort of posing the question would if she’s all three and more, because I think, uh, there are multitudes, I think that was Walt Whitman. There are multitudes. And so far I’ve had, um, really great response to my work. A lot of people resonate with what I’m doing, which is cool. Cause I was a little nervous when I started painting all that stuff. Like this is so weird Doria, what is wrong with you?
Anne Kelly (09:43):
So that’s, um, kind of details of this painting, a safe place. The Southwest, uh, sitting on a cactus is probably the least safe place out there. Right.
Dorielle Caimi (09:54):
I’ve done that before. I mean, it was like prickly pear, but yeah, it’s not the best. Um, so a lot of my work tends to also deal with things that aren’t necessarily just like women’s issues. They’re more transcended than that. So that’s about healing, um, PTSD. So I used to have pretty bad PTSD from a rough time in my life. And my therapist kept telling me to find a safe place in my mind as we did EMDR. And, um, so I imagined that I was wrapped up in this fuzzy thing. And so even if I found myself in a prickly situation, I could kind of go into that safe place. And then I started to eventually, um, heal and I found some real power in that, um, ability to protect myself.
Anne Kelly (10:36):
Yeah. A lot of these are definitely inspired by personal experiences. Maybe a lot of the things you’re painting, you can’t articulate at the time. You, you have faith that you’ll figure it out later.
Dorielle Caimi (10:47):
Yeah. Yeah. Because I’m usually going with a feeling it’s just a gut intuition. Typically I’ll have like, you know, waltzing through my head, a bunch of ideas and kind of think of them as I’m auditioning in my head to be paintings. And when one comes to me and I feel like goosebumps and like that’s exciting, that’s electric. That that could really, that really excites me to paint. I just go for it. And I don’t ask questions. I don’t try to figure out why I get that excited feeling. It’s kind of like when you’re running and you get that jolt of, um, endorphins, your runner’s high or something like that, then, you know, typically the paintings start to become clear as I keep moving forward with them. But some of them, I know what they mean when I get the ideas.
Anne Kelly (11:31):
I mean, I think that’s something a lot of artists run into where they think, oh, I want to create this image or I want to do this thing, but I don’t know what it means. Um, some of the best advice I’ve ever heard is just to do it and then you will figure it out later.
Dorielle Caimi (11:45):
Did you not to do an art school because you, in art school, you need to defend and explain yourself all the time and otherwise the teacher can’t grade you, but I would contend that that’s the best way to start a painting is by going with an intuition and a gut feeling rather than bumping into criticism and, and analysis. Because, um, I do believe that, uh, the act of creation and the act of criticism are two separate acts. And if you are in a flow and if you feel inspired, really just don’t ask questions, just go with it.
Anne Kelly (12:16):
So that said you have had, I would say quite a bit of success in your career. You’ve had quite a few exhibitions you’ve been interviewed and featured in a lot of publications. Do you have any advice to young artists that are maybe just getting, getting,
Dorielle Caimi (12:33):
Yeah, I have a, like a ton of advice for young artists. Um, let’s say the top ones, uh, number one, I think it’s okay to start up with appropriating other people that you really love, uh, because that’s how you sort of start. Um, and then, but then start moving to your own voice as soon as possible. The other advice is just to do it because no, one’s going to give you permission to do it. No one’s going to like, you know, get you up in the morning or whatever. I, I actually put my degree out in my parents’ converted garage and, and my, my whole MO in the morning was to of course, get myself fed and get a cup of coffee and go in fresh in the morning. And it had some Christmas lights. And when I plugged those Christmas lights in, it was go time.
Dorielle Caimi (13:19):
That meant the phone had to be off because the lights were on and we had to go paint. And another thing I did was I wrote down the names of all of the people who had criticized, what I wanted to do or didn’t understand my vision, who would sort of make like worm their way into my neurosis as I was painting. And I put all their names on it, on this list. And then I put it on my door, on the outside of the studio. And when those Christmas lights were on, those voices were not allowed in this space. It was like my creative space. And that really helped me to get started psychologically cause I was in Albuquerque and I was like, I felt like I was in the middle of nowhere. And you know, I really had to create a lot of psychological constructs that helped me to do the work.
Dorielle Caimi (14:02):
And then the other advice is just keep going, pace yourself. It’s hard, but it’s very rewarding and, uh, take care of your body. And also, I would say one more thing, which is to continue to nurture your relationships with your friends and your family and your partners, because it’s very easy to get caught up in the studio. And then just think that that’s the only thing that matters. But there are times when, you know, you might not find that it’s flowing are you like this year for me has been slow as hell and I’m not worried because I’ve, you know, invested into other aspects of my life. So I’m just kind of hanging out over there for now the overwhelm of the pandemic and everything. And then also the there’s, there’s really not the kind of pressure that I usually have for, you know, around me to get the work done and get the show going and all this stuff. And I’ve found it’s kind of a relief because I’m a little bit, I’m feeling a little burnt out and I expected this would happen at some point and I’m not worried about it. So I think the, the wisest thing to do right now for me is to just, you know, get in the studio everyday, do a little bit, but don’t push, um, because I don’t want to reach the point of chronic, uh, creative fatigue.
Anne Kelly (15:12):
Yeah. I think we all need to give ourselves permission to do whatever feels right.
Dorielle Caimi (15:16):
And, you know, because of all of the quarantines and things like that, I’ve just been having more time to go inward. So I’ve done a lot of like personal healing and therapy and just really focusing on that kind of more internal stuff. Um, that was something we talked about a lot in art school is how to sustain an art practice over the course of a lifetime. And how do you deal with, um, fatigue and how do you deal with the sustaining, the longevity of a career? One of the things we all sort of agreed on during our discussions was that sometimes we think, well, we thought that it would probably come to a point where, uh, you need to stop doing the art and go out into life so you can kind of refuel. And then, uh, I think there’s a saying art informs life or life and forms art. I think it’s life informs art. So it’s, for me, I’m kind of going out and getting ideas right now. I’m in gestation.
Anne Kelly (16:07):
Absolutely. I mean, there was the actual physical act of painting and showing the paintings, but yeah, if you don’t have that, that, that fuel and where where’s it coming from.
Dorielle Caimi (16:18):
Exactly. And if you’re already tired, like I could probably, you know, when I feel kind of fueled up again, I can, I could work and work and work without a deadline, but I’ve been pushing myself so hard for 15 years. It’s, it’s definitely time for me to not freak out as much. Um, like one of the reasons I pushed myself so hard was because I thought, you know, I only have so many years to launch a successful art career before I become a mom. And then I’ll, I’ll have to give like, let go of my art career and become a mom. And now I’m realizing like, actually, like, this is the perfect thing to do as a mom paint at home or whatever. So I’m kind of realizing maybe I can pace myself a little more.
Anne Kelly (17:00):
One of my favorite of your paintings, I think actually deals with that. It’s the woman with the stork on her head. I had read somewhere that was kind of specifically what, what that image was about. It’s called
Dorielle Caimi (17:13):
The weight. W E I G HT
Anne Kelly (17:15):
And that would be on your website. Pull that back up where I go and often find that image you’ve kind of just recently started painting men. Is that accurate
Dorielle Caimi (17:26):
Semi recently, about five years ago, I started to paint men and I S I still could paint more. I think I’ve only painted three.
Anne Kelly (17:35):
So that is a new thing still.
Dorielle Caimi (17:37):
Yeah. Yeah, because I figure, you know, it’s, it’s important also to talk about how men presume that other people would see men, the way I perceive them, like this painting is called forgiveness. And it was painted during a time when I was really angry at you, men in my life, family members realize that they were just humans and I, I had expected more from them. And so I painted this guy who was a genie, so he doesn’t have a bottom. And then I allowed myself to stab the painting kind of as a cathartic release, kind of like the way we tell a child to scream into a pillow when they’re upset or something like that. So I allowed for the expression of the anger was seeking, find forgiveness and understanding. So this painting was definitely very cathartic and personal for me. And originally the title was forgiving. The men we mistook for wish granters. It’s not supposed to be violent. It’s supposed to be a sort of illustrating the path to forgiveness.
Anne Kelly (18:37):
And you changed the title
Dorielle Caimi (18:39):
To just forgiveness.
Anne Kelly (18:40):
Yes. And you sell both original paintings as well as prints.
Dorielle Caimi (18:46):
Yes, I do. And you know, I, that’s something, you know, in, in school they teach artists how to not do that because they say that won’t be as your, your work won’t be as valuable or coveted. And I think that that’s because you look at like couture and they released like back Birkin bags that are going for like, you know, tens of thousands of dollars. And maybe they are in limited additions, but they’re released by the thousands. And, you know, if an artist decides to release an edition of each of her paintings at, you know, 35 in addition, or 250, in addition, that’s like 250 prints to 7 billion people in the world, it’s still quite limited. So I really support artists to do what they can to, um, take control of their own, uh, commerce for their art and make money, because I think we need artists to have money so they can make their art and thrive
Anne Kelly (19:44):
That has changed as well. And I also think offering the small edition print run also makes it maybe a little more democratic as well in that maybe I personally can’t afford to buy this original painting right now, but maybe I could pick up a print. Yeah.
Dorielle Caimi (20:01):
That’s exactly another reason why I do it is because I have a lot of people who want to own the image, or it really resonates with them and they can’t buy the original for one it’s maybe too expensive or maybe it’s sold. And so it was good to be able to get the work to a broader audience.
Anne Kelly (20:18):
So I’m curious about this, this particular painting. I really like it. And I’m just curious what you have to say about it.
Dorielle Caimi (20:25):
This one, my sister is like, she’s like my little art critic. She’s like, I really like it, but you’re adding a lot of information. I think you need to stop cause I was getting really into it, but it was kind of talking about that singularity that I was mentioning earlier where this woman sort of exists in this, maybe like this forest of SIM oversimplified, uh, icons. Um, so you have the emojis which are over simplified in their ability to convey singular emotion. You’ve got the bathroom lady in the background, you’ve got like stylized breasts and the poop emoji and rainbows. And she’s sort of in this kind of embodied by the, the kind of fearful one. So she’s sort of understanding that she may not be in the best space for her own complexity called it, babe, in the woods, just because of that, that phrase, like, you know, someone says something to you to maybe belittle your experience and you know, a lot you can say, well, you know, I ain’t no, babe in the woods I’ve been there.
Dorielle Caimi (21:27):
I know stuff. I’m smart. I start my first rodeo. Oh, it’s sort of a, like a way of saying there’s this babe in the woods, but it’s also kind of satirical and it’s in its title too, because she’s not necessarily, she’s not necessarily a babe in the woods. She looks very smart. She’s very focused. She’s very serious. And she’s got that one teal eye, which at the time, for me, it felt like she could, it was like the eye of truth. Like she could see the truth made me be her own truth or, or something more deep and real and complex. So there’s that too. So it’s a pretty intense painting lot going on.
Anne Kelly (22:06):
And this painting is 72 by 44. So,
Dorielle Caimi (22:12):
And it has a home went to the Muskegon museum of art. That was really cool acquisition.
Anne Kelly (22:17):
That’s awesome. Seeing this image on, was it the, at the time or was it Southwest contemporary? They’ve recently?
Dorielle Caimi (22:24):
I think there was like one of the last issues of the magazine before they moved over to Southwest contemporary
Anne Kelly (22:31):
That came out at a time where I was just so busy at work that they had dropped it off at the door. And I think there was a good maybe two weeks where I just saw it, but I didn’t have time to pick it up or look at it or anything, but I saw it out of the corner of my eye. And so that was kind of this interesting relationship where I have that I have with this piece. Whereas when we kinda got our introduction, that that was the first image I thought of. So that’s, that’s kind of an interesting aspect of just different ways that work can be shown and disseminated. There’s museum shows there’s gallery exhibitions, uh, these days there’s Instagram, all of these digital formats. And then there is a cover of, of this great local publication in Santa Fe.
Dorielle Caimi (23:18):
Yeah. Yeah. That was a pretty cool, it was so weird and surreal to walk around and see this, my mermaid, like in these boxes, it looked like she was in her fish tank all around town. Yeah. So that was a pretty cool, um, that Lauren trusts, uh, did that have a few of those at home
Anne Kelly (23:40):
Initially was I really love this image, but there’s something about it made me slightly uncomfortable, but then it grew on me, but I kind of get the impression that that’s kind of part of you’re going for.
Dorielle Caimi (23:52):
Yeah, I definitely, I embraced the axed. I mean, that’s, what’s good. Look at her. The piece personally for me came at a time when I just felt like life was giving me one under tow after next, and I couldn’t come up for air. And I realized that the only way I was going to survive life was if I grew a pair of fins and learned how to swim and I resisted that growth. Um, and, and so what I did was I painted these scales on this mermaid and there’s little smiley faces in each of the scales to sort of counter that frustration and anger in the mermaid’s face. She perceives the growth is painful, but it’s actually a very good thing for her to learn how to swim. And so, you know, those fins are actually filled with positive energy and little smiley faces and telling her it’s a good thing for you to learn how to swim. And so that’s what this piece is all about.
Anne Kelly (24:52):
That’s important to have good art is that it’s not always completely comfortable. It challenges you and
Dorielle Caimi (24:59):
Yeah, well, a lot of people didn’t get what I was doing at first, you know, like my mother-in-law’s like, can you just paint Mo Noah’s Ark? And everyone was like, why can’t you just paint, smiles all the time? And it wasn’t interesting to me, you know, I like to delve into the conflict and the pain and explore it and like pick it apart and figure out how to heal it or transmute it. And so that’s why I go there.
Anne Kelly (25:21):
I do a lot of portfolio reviews for photographers and I have been asked, what can I create that people will buy? And I remember one particular time when somebody said that to me and I said, well, I could tell you that, but I don’t think you’re going to create the work that people are going to buy. Because even if I tell you the popular subject, matter, if you know, if you’re not, if it’s not coming directly from you, then it you can tell. You can tell exactly
Dorielle Caimi (25:48):
Most of my work, I’m like, ah, crap, who’s going to buy this, but I love it. And then someone buys it. I’m like, what is going on? But it’s, you know, this, I have to paint the work that I want to paint. That’s the advice I give artists to actually is you can paint flowers and landscapes, those sell pretty well, but you’re probably going to hate doing it. First of all. And then people are going to pick up on this, not really authentically coming from a space of enthusiasm.
Anne Kelly (26:13):
Well, it’s just not going to have that same, that same power. It’s going to be at another, still life of a pear. And not to say there are not some amazing, still lives of pears, but I suspect the people who have created those images of pears were really feeling them, not just I’m painting them because they thought people would buy them.
Dorielle Caimi (26:32):
Yeah. And I mean, that’s a huge topic that I talked to my students about is, is, you know, you’re not a mind reader. You can’t actually know exactly what your audience is going to think. And honestly, even if you did humans have upwards of what, like 80,000 thoughts a day we’re constantly changing. So the best thing to do is go with your own truth and your own authenticity and move from there. That’s something that Joan Baez said too, is, you know, you have to move from that space of, you know, authentic interpersonal electricity. And then when, when that happens, typically what she notices that her songs, uh, transcended and found, um, uh, resonance with tons of people and she had no idea it was going to go out and do those things.
Anne Kelly (27:15):
And so you teach workshops in addition to being a working artist, from what I could tell you used to invite people to Santa Fe and they could come to your studio and you would teach them to paint. And now you’re starting some online courses. Is that right?
Dorielle Caimi (27:32):
Yeah. I think, you know, I decided today, I think what I’ll do is I’ll just start small. I’m going to do like a test run of a few people on zoom and we’ll do like a small workshop to see how it goes. And then I can open up a broader curriculum, but I typically will bring, uh, six students, um, they’ll come out to New Mexico or some of them are already from here and I set them up with their easels here and we had lunch and we’d go out to dinner and, and it’s, it’s a wonderful time and I love it, but it’s just not happening this year. So, we’ll do it with zoom.
Anne Kelly (28:06):
But Hey, like we said earlier, we’ve, we’ve all discovered zoom in 2020.
Dorielle Caimi (28:11):
It seems pretty user-friendly it existed
Anne Kelly (28:14):
Prior.
Dorielle Caimi (28:15):
Yeah. When it first, when everything started with my friends were like, let’s do a zoom call and like, oh cool.
Anne Kelly (28:20):
What’s that? And, and here we are now.
Dorielle Caimi (28:27):
Yeah. I’m like, yeah, I know what to do. Zoom. She’ll send me a Lincoln of the password and here we are.
Anne Kelly (28:31):
Right. Assuming it will let you in, we live in Santa Fe and we take mercury retrograde kind of seriously. And we are in mercury retrograde right now.
Dorielle Caimi (28:39):
So I knew it was going on. I not taking personal responsibility.
Anne Kelly (28:44):
I thought this was hilarious. I was at the dog park the other day. And I was walking, talking to a friend and somehow this, the subject of mercury retrograde technology was, um, something we were talking about. And this guy not to say he was in a Bush, but he was behind a Bush. I didn’t see him literally ran out and, and, and came up to me and said, is mercury in retrograde? I’ve been feeling like that was the case all day. And he just started telling me like, oh, it makes things that it happened to him earlier. And I said, yeah, yeah, that’s what’s going on. And, and then, uh, my friend, and she said, oh, only in Santa Fe. I was gonna say, I kinda, I kinda, it was kind of a, it was kind of that magical Santa Fe moment.
Dorielle Caimi (29:34):
Yeah. No Santa Fe has got that vibe. And I actually find a lot of people come to my workshops, um, to either have a cathartic release through their work or seek a healing through their work, because I do a lot of, um, self portrait classes and, and, and their conceptually based self portrait classes. So I do teach him how to, you know, paint realistically, but they have to add a conceptual part that speaks to something they’re trying to express or work through, or identify with people, come out here and have some really cool painting ideas. And they feel great when they leave. I miss it.
Anne Kelly (30:10):
It’s an inspiring place. We’ve got the magic light. I mean, there’s a reason why Georgia O’Keeffe came here. All of the artists followed
Dorielle Caimi (30:22):
It’s yeah, I’m not, I’m stuck here. I’m not leaving
Anne Kelly (30:28):
So animals in your paintings. There’s, there’s kind of a common theme of, of animals. And I feel like that stork is coming up soon. Conceptually for you. Uh, what, what is the role of the animals?
Dorielle Caimi (30:42):
Yes, I did. So I did a lot of animals for the first five years career. I really liked the idea of what kind of energy and animal could have and conceptual impact. It could have, especially in an oversized animal. Um, for some reason I kept, uh, having the idea of, of animals over the head. And I’m still not exactly sure why, you know, there could be like, because over overhead is there’s a lot more presence, um, and it draws attention and it kind of signifies what might be going on in the person’s head. So like in the case of this one, don’t be so ridiculous, which is just over my computer over there. That’s just how commenting on how we go through various struggles in our lifetime. And they might be pretty big for us at any given point and, and other people might not understand and they might call you ridiculous.
Dorielle Caimi (31:36):
Cause you, I don’t know, can’t get over a relationship where you’re a little kid and you can’t figure out how to tie your shoes and it’s a big effing deal. And so sort of commenting on that, like, this is ridiculous, but she’s obviously having a rough time of it. And so it’s sort of a satirical piece on how, you know, we each go through our struggles the way we go through our struggles, just the way it is. Love that one. So yeah, so this piece I actually found out, I knew I had something going on, but, um, for a very long time, but I, um, I had toka phobia, which is, uh, an intense fear of pregnancy and childbirth, um, which is actually what I’ve spent the most, most of this year working on healing. And I have, I had a breakthrough. I feel fine now for the first time in years and years, but a lot of my work does reflect that fear and apprehension and the weight of it.
Dorielle Caimi (32:28):
And the, the magnitude of, of, of the implications of being a mother. And this one I painted pretty early on. I kept getting the idea of a bird on the head and because I went to a conceptually based art school, I knew it had to convey something meaningful, not just to me, but hopefully more universal. It was a pretty ambitious twenty-something year old. So, but it’s a stork on the head pointing down, like expecting you to make the baby out, not carrying the little thingy, you have to do it. So I had a lot of friends actually say, yeah, I, I feel this one.
Anne Kelly (33:05):
Well kind of a big deal for women to, as a big expectation.
Dorielle Caimi (33:12):
Yeah. Just, um, allowing myself to express that because you know, you hear a lot of people say that, uh, it’s like, it’s like either like it’s the most tremendous amazing thing. Well, I mean, they say it’s the most tremendous, amazing thing. Or like, this is like the worst thing ever, but it’s also like the most amazing thing. And like, that’s like a lot. That’s
Anne Kelly (33:38):
An extreme difference.
Dorielle Caimi (33:40):
And my friends were like, I’m so tired. I can’t even think straight. I love being a mom. Like you do, you you’re doing great,
Anne Kelly (33:50):
But I love her hair. I mean, just all of the details, just the facial expression. I mean, even, even if you didn’t have the stork sitting on her head, I think she almost says it all with,
Dorielle Caimi (34:02):
She looks a little bit tired, something about her, the way she came out, as she looks older than she is something about her, it looks like an old soul. Now that I’m looking at,
Anne Kelly (34:12):
It feels powerful and beautiful. That’s that’s my interpretation.
Dorielle Caimi (34:16):
Oh, good. See, I’m blaming mercury in retrograde. I’m tired today. She’s tired because also it’s a self portrait. So I’m like, oh yeah, I get that red around her eyes. She’s tired.
Anne Kelly (34:29):
So if anybody wants to buy the prints or are they originals, they’re all available on your website.
Dorielle Caimi (34:37):
Um, on my website, you can see the available paintings. And then if you click on shop on the left, that’ll take you to my print shop and you can see the prints there.
Anne Kelly (34:48):
Do you addition the prints? Are they open edition? How do you do that?
Dorielle Caimi (34:52):
They’re their additions. Most of them are additions of 35. I, I chose to really, uh, release a second edition of one that was pretty popular, but it’s a different dimension. And that one is two 50 for the edition. No open additions as of right now. So they’re still limited, but we’ll, we’ll see how it goes and no workshops just yet, but that’s in the works.
Anne Kelly (35:17):
You’ve lived in a lot of different places and, and you kind of grew up in Santa Fe, is that right? And then you left travel a lot of places and then came back.
Dorielle Caimi (35:28):
Yeah, I mean, so I was born in Virginia and I lived there till I was seven. Came here, mostly grew up in Albuquerque, but my, my family did live in Los Alamos for a little while. And my grandmother is one of those little old, Hispanic, Catholic ladies who had 13 children. And, um, she’s gone now, but she lived up in Penasco. And then I, I lived in Korea for awhile. Yes. Yeah. It’ll Oakland, Maryland. And now I think it’s time for me to just like set down some roots. Um, I’ve got my, my travel bug, uh, taken care of for now.
Anne Kelly (36:04):
So, so all of the places that you’ve lived and maybe the amazing food that is common to that place, do you have a favorite food?
Dorielle Caimi (36:16):
I love, I mean, I love of course, new Mexican food, but I do love Korean food too. I get ordered a bunch last night. There’s a place in Albuquerque. It’s a tiny little Korean market that looks like it’s constantly going out of business and they have a, they have a restaurant in the back and it’s the most authentic Korean food I’ve ever had anywhere in the whole United States. So, um, bibimbap probably would be my favorite dish. I was
Anne Kelly (36:42):
Going to say, you’re going to have to send me that information later.
Dorielle Caimi (36:44):
I real because people should go there. So they really don’t go out of business. I mean, it’s the best Korean food I’ve ever had. And I been to a lot of Korean restaurants. And
Anne Kelly (36:55):
Do you collect work by other artists or collect anything else? Other than art?
Dorielle Caimi (37:03):
I used to collect beanie babies. My sister wants to throw them out. Uh, I’ve collected a few, um, pieces of art, very small here and there. Um, I haven’t been in a financial situation to be able to do that, but my husband and I both would love to collect art as we get older and have a little bit more cash flow. I have a few small pieces, um, student, fellow, student work and trade, but not a lot. Not yet.
Anne Kelly (37:30):
There was any artist, any price point whatsoever and money was not a factor. Which, which artist would you purchase?
Dorielle Caimi (37:38):
Leah Chapen, she’s like, she’s a little one. I said early, I kept butchering her last name. I’ve been calling her Chapen for 10 years. Sorry, Leah, if you’re watching this, but she’s a tremendous figurative realist and an extraordinary in her creative, creative vision with paint also. So I would definitely get one of her pieces. You just
Anne Kelly (37:57):
Got to figure one of these days it’s it’s happening.
Dorielle Caimi (38:00):
Yes. We have steps up to look forward to.
Anne Kelly (38:05):
Absolutely. You do you listen to music while you’re painting?
Dorielle Caimi (38:10):
You know, I used to a lot, a lot, a lot, a lot of music. In fact, I think maybe that was one of the factors of, of choosing to become an artist was because I had wanted to just be in a room where I could listen to music, but after so many years of being in solitude, I found that music wasn’t quite working for me anymore. So I moved on to podcasts for a while and it’s NPR to hear people talk and to kind of distract my brain. And now I, what I do is I put on a show I’ve already seen, so I’m not too tempted to look at it visually, but I’ll have it running, uh, like a TV show on my phone or whatever, just in the corner. And I’ll just have that going so I can hear it. And remember what part of it made me laugh, but music, I still listen of course, to music. Like one of my favorites is Brandy Carlile and I’m wearing one of her shirts now. It’s probably invert reversed, but Brandy is like one of my favorites. And then I’ve all of her songs memorized. And she’s in the studio with me a little,
Anne Kelly (39:08):
But you don’t always have to be listening to something to be, to be painting. That’s not,
Dorielle Caimi (39:14):
I have nothing on and I just listened to the woodpecker outside, like pecking the side of the building.
Anne Kelly (39:20):
Sometimes that’s just as important. It’s just a different experience, right?
Dorielle Caimi (39:25):
Yeah. We’re all just be talking on the phone, uh, to family member or a friend and just let time pass and get some work done.
Anne Kelly (39:33):
Do you have a favorite movie and maybe specifically a long-term favorite movie as opposed to a recent favorite movie?
Dorielle Caimi (39:44):
Yeah, I think my all time favorite movie would be eternal sunshine of the spotless mind with Jim Carrey and Kate. Yeah. That’s probably my number one. Favorite
Anne Kelly (39:55):
I’m, I’m compiling a list of, of favorite movies of, of creative people. So I don’t know when we’re going to get that out. It just kind of happened. Naturally. Some of these I’ve seen some of them. I haven’t, some of them I’ve seen and forgotten about,
Dorielle Caimi (40:09):
I would love to see this list once it’s done,
Anne Kelly (40:11):
It will probably be ongoing. So I think I’ve just got to figure out a point where, okay, we release, um, maybe maybe quarterly or something like that. And do you have any shout outs for anybody? Anybody you want to?
Dorielle Caimi (40:23):
I got to thank your brother, Steve Kelly for a hooking this up. Kelly. Thank you. This was great. This is like the total highlight of my day.
Anne Kelly (40:33):
Thats awesome mine too. And I would love in the real world when, when we can do that, buy you a coffee or a drink or something like that. That would be
Dorielle Caimi (40:43):
Lovely. Oh my
Anne Kelly (40:45):
God. Yes. So I think, I think we’ve got to do that, but that’s what the show is really all about right now is just keeping people motivated and, oh,
Dorielle Caimi (40:55):
It’s surprising. I mean, 2020 is like terrible, but there’s also been this interesting silver linings that have been coming out. And so I’m sort of focusing on those and this is definitely one of those. So this is pretty cool.
Anne Kelly (41:07):
I mean, I think that’s, that’s what we got to do. Um, I mean, you know, we can’t ignore everything negative. That’s happening. Just focusing on, I guess, basically I just want everybody to stay inspired. That is kind of my
Dorielle Caimi (41:21):
Right. You can’t fix anything if you’re just depressed. So let’s keep inspiration going and keep moving forward.
Anne Kelly (41:29):
Exactly. Keep the conversation going, like comment and subscribe. Thank you so much for joining. Super nice to meet you. And I hope to see you in the real world sooner than later.
Dorielle Caimi (41:39):
Yeah. Nice to meet you Anne keep in touch. And um, maybe we can go out and like socially distant drink some coffee or something.
Anne Kelly (41:48):
That’s good. We’ll have a good
Dorielle Caimi (41:49):
Night. You too. Talk to you later.
Speaker 3 (42:20):
[inaudible].
