We recently connected with Cara Calvert-Thomas and have shared our conversation below.
Cara, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?
As an artist, inspiration is everywhere, whether you’re observing the world around you or pulling visions and ideas from within. However, finding truly meaningful subject matter and inspiration tends to require more depth and introspection. My most meaningful and consequently successful projects have emerged from research related to personal life events or challenges. I am a constant questioner of the “whys” of the universe. Science, nature, sociology and mysticism influence me most, and because of that (and access to the entire internet in our pockets), I often develop hypotheses and wonder if anyone has ever tested or proven my ideas about causes and effects.
Obviously internet research can open up an entire rabbit hole of information, but for some reason, certain facts or theories hit me at a profoundly personal level and flip a switch in my brain from curiosity and amusement to passion and, occasionally, obsession. When curiosity turns to passion, I have an insatiable desire to paint, draw, build and write about the discoveries, bringing both the beauty and ugliness of the topic to light; as a natural born teacher, I feel inclined to share all of my information and excitement with the entire world (or at least anyone who will listen). Sometimes my passion is quelled by a few artworks and a social media post or blog about the topic. Other times, the quest lasts for months or even years as I process information. Even if I haven’t created new material for a few years, related ideas will begin rolling back into my brain.
In 2019 when I was selected as a National Parks Artist In Residence at Homestead National Monument, I was thrilled to have a time and place to explore the deeper themes of the park. Many of my friends were confused by my excitement about a residency in a place in Nebraska they’d never heard of. However, as a descendant of Great Plains homesteaders, but also a BIPOC ally and supporter of land reparations and decolonization, this was the PERFECT place for me to delve into my ancestral past, more fully grasp the ways colonization extends beyond the images of old “educated” European dudes on sailing ships in the 1600s that schools have historically glorified as “American History”, and bring the truth to others in hopes of catalyzing reparations and unity.
Most of my residency was spent painting the natural landscapes and features while mentally processing everything that happened to the people who had lived and traveled through that space over thousands of years. Much of the time was spent delving deeper into the experiences of the autonomous nations who were pushed out and the genocides committed against them. I was able to process the deeply horrific history through portraiture and quotes of influential Indigenous leaders and share their legacy with others.
On the lighter side, but still personally meaningful, I was able to research my family tree and learn more about the experiences that motivated them to come to the US and expand westward, as well as the regional immigrant sub-cultures and communities they helped develop west of the Mississippi. Finally, it made me feel closer to my grandparents and great grandparents who I miss deeply.
I became more comfortable with an interesting dichotomy: I can love and respect my elders, the wisdom they shared, the kindness and independence they taught me to carry in life, and I recognize the challenges they faced, ultimately understanding the privilege I have because of their actions. Simultaneously, I can hold the view that I don’t have to walk that same path to improve the lives for future generations, simply for the sake of family traditions and cultural identities rooted in white supremacist, religion-based societal structures.
That experience and the series of works I developed in that time continue to influence the way I view issues surrounding historic and modern colonization, white privilege, the civil rights movement, cultural appropriation and even environmental issues, and ultimately, help me improve the way I move through life in relation to other humans and the planet we share.
When you find a subject you’re passionate about, it is absolutely going to return to your work, sometimes when you’re least expecting it, and sometimes you don’t realize its there until long after the work is completed and has been sold to a patron. Whether you recognize it right away or not, your work and process will always improve, and occasionally your life trajectory will change by connecting personal meaning to your work. I know mine has.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I’ve loved art and making things for as long as I can remember. My earliest “art” experiences include drawing in the covers of my storybooks, “embellishing” my walls, bed linens and rain jacket with magenta lipstick (and then realizing decades later that the lipstick is the same color of paint I incorporate in to nearly every work to this day), and a mixed-media installation on my bedroom doorknob integrating pre-chewed Wrigley’s Juicy Fruit gum and the stuffing from a plush toy that had split open. Growing up an only child in Alaska meant a lot of time indoors entertaining myself during the winter, and consequently, endless ours of imagination. Fun Fact: my business name, Akcara Studio comes from Alaska Cara – or – AK Cara!
By the time I started Montessori school, free-drawing, arts and crafts activities and any kinesthetic learning activity we did in school were the predominant motivators for me to get my reading and rote-learning activities done. Even at recess, my friends and I would draw in the snow or mud, or collect rocks, bark, leaves, feathers and bugs with the goal of making them into something else. My parents also kept me fully stocked with art supplies and imaginative play-based toys, signed me up for community art lessons, and praised my efforts, no matter how imperfect the products were.
My love for exploration and hands-on learning stayed with me through my teen years and eventually I ended up studying Visual Art Education at the University of Kansas. Following college, I taught elementary art in rural Oklahoma for 10 years. There was a certain degree of culture shock for me moving there, but I enjoyed my students and their families and became involved with a sub-group of the local artists’ community. Eventually, I felt like I had outgrown my role in Oklahoma and was ready to explore a more metropolitan life.
My husband and I started making plans to move to California, but job opportunities took us on a detour through Dallas, Texas, and then Houston. It was a lovely, unexpected turn that provided me with an amazing network of other creatives, professional opportunities and endless inspiration, but also gave us the ability to make our long-awaited leap to SoCal, where I eventually landed in 2017. We lived in Temescal Valley for our first 6 years, and have recently made a move out to Yucca Valley to enjoy the slower pace of desert life in close proximity to endless parks and preserves, nightly shows from the starlit skies, and a thriving arts community.
One of my personal mottos is “Live life like a tourist.” No matter how long I intend to stay in a place, I never want to become so settled that I forget to explore the amazing places, people and foods in my area. Getting to know people and local culture are how I become inspired with new ideas, but also how I continue building a professional and social network. Consequently, that inspires creativity. I’m generally a person who creates more art when I’m in a positive, optimistic emotional space, so living life to the fullest increases my productivity.
No matter the medium, my work generally features bright colors, and nature or science based themes, from the microscopic to mountainous, with frequent forays into satire and general quirkiness. The majority of my work is two-dimensional with acrylic painting, watercolor, drawing and collage at the forefront, but I consider myself a serial dabbler and love sculpture, sewing, textile painting and design, wire wrapped jewelry making, found object assemblages, ceramics, and even developing coloring books, so you’ll never quite know what I’m up to until you walk into my studio or market booth.
As an independent visual artist with a formal art education training, Akcara Studio offers a variety of products and services. With very few exceptions, any painting, print, pendant or other handmade item I make is available for purchase, and if it isn’t, I can likely make another version for interested clients. Additionally, I do commission work and am able to work in a variety of styles, depending on a client’s tastes and needs. My most common requests are for painted pet portraits, but I also paint custom landscapes, portraits and on occasion, cityscapes. I work in both traditional and digital media, depending on a client’s tastes, and can even integrate both methods into a work.
I am licensed with a State of California Teaching Credential in Art, and am available for private and small group art lessons in the Morongo Basin and Coachella Valley or online for ages 5 through adult, and I coach and consult with individuals of all ages who want to explore or unleash their creativity and further their art skills. Although my overall teaching methodology is rooted in a discipline-based art education approach (studio, art history, art criticism and aesthetics), I strongly believe art skill development is best achieved through practice, experimentation and exploration, with technical coaching as needed.
Additionally, I offer workshops and entertainment-based live painting events, and am available for artist residencies in the US and abroad, providing workshops and artwork in exchange for travel expenses and materials. Ultimately, I love making things with my hands, and if I can bring that same joy to others while doing so, all the better!
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
Life can be kind of crazy. Everyone has their personal struggles their facing, and no one else knows what it’s like to experience someone else’s life and challenges, or why they respond the way they do. For me, my greatest long term challenge for me has been to balance my physical health with my career.
As a teenager, I was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease, an autoimmune related inflammatory bowel disease that affects the entire digestive tract, as well as skin, eyes and other mucus membranes. I was at my sickest during my teen and early college years, anemic, too tired to stay awake during class or while working on homework assignments, dangerously underweight, and missing out on social and academic activities because of frequent and unexpected trips to the bathroom. Somehow, I managed to persevere though.
When I changed my college major to Art Education, there was somewhat of a turning point in my life and health. I found a place where I thrived and felt like I belonged. Although my state of health wasn’t perfect, my time and schedule worked in a way that more easily accommodated for my disability. In turn, that reduced some of the stress in my life and slowing that cycle of stress from being sick and being sick from the stress.
Teaching in a public school and balancing life as a newly graduated, newly married individual certainly had its share of stressors, but because of medical advancements, my Crohn’s symptoms were mostly in remission for several years. As changes in my administration developed, so did my stress levels and I eventually realized a change of routine was going to be necessary. I began splitting my time between the public school setting and the community art center, as well as working on my personal body of work, and again, my body felt relief.
This back and forth of health was inspiration for a 2015 body of work titled Macrobiome. I was involved in fundraising for the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation when a major research breakthrough regarding the effect of the microbiome on Crohn’s and other autoimmune disease processes, which supported my personal observations with nutrition and supplementation over the years. As I delved into the topic to learn as much as I could about the study, I began coming across these amazing electron micrograph images of pathogens, cells and other biopsy slides related to Crohn’s disease. So I started painting them in large scale with bold, cheerful colors, appearing to viewers as abstract patterns and compositions. It was a cathartic know-thy-enemy sort of experience and to this day, those images bring people into my booth at markets.
But painting doesn’t cure Crohn’s on its own (too bad!)… When I moved to California, I had greater access to holistic healthcare, top ranking medical care and high quality fresh foods everywhere I turned. I also started developing a social network of other artists and was able to start connecting with art markets and gallerists. I was ready for lift-off with art shows booked, marketing strategy in development and ready to apply for new residencies in early 2020. I had started to have worse Crohn’s symptoms, but was able to start a promising new treatment. And then March came along…
When the world locked down for the pandemic, I was unable to get unemployment insurance due to a glitch in the state’s online system and unavailability of humans on their phone lines to assist. I made it work though. We tightened up our budget and I worked a few hours each week at my friends’ painting studio while they did their best to both help me out and keep their small business afloat and their mortgage paid.
Unfortunately, I kept feeling worse, attributing it to stress and the isolation of masked stay-at-home life. I couldn’t paint. It was like I had this part of my brain that refused to go to my easel and pick up a brush. I would sit outside for hours on end staring into space or watching the world through the internet. But physically, I wasn’t well either. I was in constant pain and trying to drown it with no avail.
In November, we eventually had an answer to why I was so unwell. I had a high grade, poorly differentiated neuroendocrine tumor of the colon and rectum. The next year was a whirlwind of labs, biopsies and scans, surgery, adapting to life with an ileostomy, chemotherapy, radiation, and more scans, labs and biopsies… And the few waking moments I had entirely to myself and the energy for anything but watching TV were spent doodling on my iPad, writing, or joking with friends and family via text and FaceTime…
THAT eventually led to me creating and publishing my first adult coloring book, which in turn led to the belief that I could keep creating, sell my art online, vend at art markets, and even have my art for sale in galleries at some point. I started exploring more print-on-demand options for distributing my designs and opened an online boutique offering stitched-to-order clothing pieces featuring my art. I even signed up for classes at Riverside City College to improve my graphic design and printing skills (if you don’t know this already — there are some amazing small biz courses offered through the community college system that are entirely free for entrepreneurs in the Inland Empire).
Life continues to throw loops at me — last summer I broke my right wrist while attempting to celebrate still being alive with a roller skating party. A surgery, some new internal bling and 10 weeks of physical therapy later, I was still alive and able to paint and draw as if it never happened, but I’ll definitely never get on roller skates again!
I was well just in time to participate in several fall holiday markets including The Patchwork Show. I started gaining more momentum with Craftcation, an annual makers conference in Ventura Beach, and four more Patchwork Shows, despite selling our house and moving to a totally new community.
Then two weeks ago, I was hospitalized with an intestinal blockage, a relatively common complication for Crohn’s patients, ostomates and cancer survivors… I was really angry about it for a few days because I missed my vacation with our family, but then I realized there are always other silver linings. We got to drive home past amazing scenery that I’ll be able to paint later, we came home just in time to experience a hurricane in the Mojave Desert, and I had time to work on putting my studio space together so I can get to creating sooner…
To quote Shakespeare, “All’s well that ends well,” and I can’t wait to see where this happy ending leads, even if there are unexpected bumps along the route!
Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?
I feel like despite my stage in life and the decades of being an artist, I’m still very much at the novice stage in terms of bringing life and success to Akcara Studio as a business, versus a hobby or dream. However, I’m regularly inspired and impacted by other creatives and entrepreneurs I meet along life’s path..
I have a handful of colleagues-turned-friends-turned-mentors who regularly keep me motivated and have provided powerful examples of making an independent living from their small businesses. Among them:
Dallas Artist, Theresa Mangum was a successful painter, dancer and muralist at the peak of her career when she was unexpectedly taken away from the world. She embodied determination and dedication to her craft, and although she protected her technical processes that allowed her to create high quality work with unmatched speed, she always had time to share her business sense, artistic advice and professional connections to support other creatives, no matter what stage they were in life. I knew her as a close friend, but I hold deeply the skills and advice she shared with me over the years, often hearing her reminders in my mind to schedule everything, make time every day for my craft, and occasionally scolding me for having a disorganized studio. You can see her work and the evolution of her art business and marketing style on Instagram at @artbyt_artist .
Wisconsin singer, painter, poet, award-winning storyteller and producer of the Full Spirals Podcast, Stacy Parish and I became connected when I was working in a role of corporate trainer for a paint and sip franchise. We shared a commonality as former art teachers looking for a lighter way to share our passion for bringing art to the world. She eventually worked with me on my team of franchise artist trainers, and nearly in unison, we went off in our own independent directions as artists. Stacy is an expert in connecting creatives from across the country (and even the world) through her online communities, as well as her podcast. Through her storytelling and her guests’ interviews, Full Spirals
brings endless inspiration and wisdom from successful creatives and performers, and often makes me think “Holy cow— what am I doing with my life? I need to get in gear!” She also regularly references authors and speakers who have inspired her, so it’s a little added bonus to add to my ever-growing must-read list. You can see all of Stacy’s updates and find links to her podcast on Instagram at @boomstacy .
Most of my most recent entrepreneurial advice has come via Nicole Stevenson, founder and CEO of Dear Handmade Life. Her company is responsible for The Patchwork Show, Craftcation and a membership-based program for creatives and entrepreneurs called The Club. Nicole has a way of surrounding herself with supportive, driven, unabashedly authentic individuals (self-proclaimed “creative misfits”) who lift other creatives towards success. Through her brand’s events, I have increased my network of supportive fellow artists and professional connections exponentially in less than a year’s time. I’ve gotten set up with Constant Contact after attending her free marketing webinars. I’ve started a Spoonflower shop after hearing her story and having a chance to interact with the company at Craftcation. She truly strives to live an authentic, creative life while helping others reach their full entrepreneurial potential. You can find Nicole and learn more about her company on Instagram at @dearhandmadelife .
I feel like I can go on and on and on about the seemingly endless list of individuals who inspire me every day in my quest as an art business owner (@honesthive, @paint_with_mel, @kristinboothart, @aromachaura_ssm, @kelsodoesntdance, @artbyjefflee, @buddhababe333 just to name a few). I guess I need to do a regular social media and newsletter feature so I can keep bragging on *all* of the amazing people who inspire me every day!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.caracalvertthomas.com
- Instagram: @akcarastudio
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AkcaraStudio
- Linkedin: Cara Calvert-Thomas
- Spoonflower: https://www.spoonflower.com/profiles/akcara_studio
Image Credits
Photo of Cara in her Patchwork Show vendor booth taken by Nik V Photography, 2023 All others by Cara Calvert-Thomas/Akcara Studio