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Caitlynn Abdow Velasquez
196 Plays4 years ago
Caitlynn Abdow Velasquez was born and raised in the rolling hills of Western Massachusetts and spent her childhood exploring the outdoors, dusty old art history books, and illustrated dictionaries. In 2008 she achieved a degree in Painting and Art History at the University of Massachusetts. That same year she moved to Portland, Oregon where she now resides and works. Caitlynn Abdow is an award winning and published artist having shown in over 30 fine art gallery exhibitions nationwide.
Her art focuses on a visual language of ancient and contemporary symbolism while featuring a limited naturalistic color palette. Caitlynn works primarily with oil paints and watercolors to render figurative and narrative works.
She also does beautiful tattoos that transform the human body into a new piece of art.
https://www.instagram.com/caitlynnabdow/
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Transcript
Introduction to Caitlin Abdow Vlasquez
00:00:03
Speaker
You are listening to something rather than nothing. Creator and host, Kendall Ante. Editor and producer, Peter Bauer.
00:00:18
Speaker
This is Ken Vellante with the Something Rather Than Nothing podcast. And I have an interview that I have wanted to get for a while with Caitlin Abdow Vlasquez, artist, tattoo artist based in Portland. Wanted to welcome you to the show, Caitlin. It's great to have you. Thank you. It's great to be here.
00:00:42
Speaker
Thank you. We start with the big question right off the bat about you.
Artistic Family Background
00:00:53
Speaker
Caitlyn, were you an artist when you were born?
00:00:56
Speaker
I've thought a lot about this question and honestly, I couldn't say. My family was a very strange one. We had art everywhere. My mom was an artist. She did calligraphy. My mom and my dad ran their own business doing calligraphy and photography and party planning, all kinds of just entrepreneurial crafty things. My grandpa was a watercolor painter. He actually did the
00:01:23
Speaker
advertisements in old magazines back in the 40s and 50s. So I grew up around art. I had access to really great art supplies when I was a kid and art history books everywhere.
00:01:38
Speaker
not a lot of team sports of my family. So yeah, I couldn't say because I've chosen to spend a lot of my time on art and working on crafts and skills, but also that is a choice. So I could have completely rebelled and not enjoyed art at all.
00:02:04
Speaker
Yeah, so it was around you and there must have been a lot of it around you because of what you're describing because you know, like a lot of images and a lot of that, you know, being around that. And what region did you grow up with? What region did you grow up in?
Growing Up Artistic in Western Massachusetts
00:02:24
Speaker
I grew up in western Massachusetts, so I kind of describe it like the Shire, like little hills, little rivers, very picturesque. If you picture upstate New York, the landscape was more similar to that than coastal New England.
00:02:44
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, I noticed I was actually just recently describing to somebody as you head into I'm from Rhode Island as you head into western, Massachusetts. There's this area where it's like that Massachusetts, New York area as you head out, you know, as you head out to western Massachusetts. And it's such a different culture and climate out in western Massachusetts versus, you know, the eastern part. Yeah. Yeah.
00:03:13
Speaker
A lot of artists, a lot of writers. Yeah, tons of artists. Yeah, so there's a big folk music scene in Western Mass. There's lots of poetry readings. There's lots of artists and galleries. And I would say quirkiness, like I grew up in the quirky part of the state where being an artist was really acceptable, maybe compared to other areas. And I also spent a lot of time outdoors
00:03:43
Speaker
just staring at leaves and bugs and plants. And that was hugely inspiring, I think, as a kid and still continues to be. I think when I learned to love a place, it's when I learned to love the nature of a place. Yeah, yeah, I can really connect to that and appreciate that. And of course, we're talking Western Massachusetts, but of course, in Oregon as well with a lot of
Nature-Inspired Tattoo Art
00:04:10
Speaker
the beautiful state that it is and the nature that's present. I wanted to go into tattooing. What I wanted to ask is, I haven't had many tattoo artists on the show.
00:04:29
Speaker
I had a question about that. I want to get into that component of your art. I've seen the images, both you paint, but also the tattoos art that you do.
00:04:47
Speaker
beautiful and incredible. And I know like a lot of people desire you to tattoo them. That's clear. Can you tell us what, like when folks are coming to you, what do you think that they're seeing from you that they want to put on themselves? How do you go about your tattooing or what are people going to you for, you think? Well,
00:05:15
Speaker
I think you have it spot on, that people see the love of nature. I often get requests for naturalistic imagery, whether it's landscapes or pet portraits or flowers. I've had multiple people contact me and say that they specifically chose me because they could tell that I loved nature. I don't know how that comes through in the art, I'm just glad that it does because that's very much where my heart is.
00:05:40
Speaker
But as far as how people choose me, I think it's so dependent on the particular client. Maybe they liked my bio, or maybe they saw one tattoo that I did on a friend of theirs 10 years ago, and they liked that. And that might even be kind of different from what I do now. But then through talking to them, I can figure out if it's a good fit or not.
00:06:06
Speaker
And I think that clients know a lot more about tattoos nowadays than they did say 20 years ago. And so they somewhat know what to look for, like they're looking for clean lines and bright colors and consistent shading. But I think also people are trying to connect with someone when they're trying to get a tattoo, especially if it's a larger project.
00:06:33
Speaker
Yeah, I find that in discussions with tattoo artists, like that they, you mentioned like how big a, like there's a certain like honor to it, right? Of like transforming the body and a lot on the show, we talk a lot about, you know, mind, body and philosophy, but like that component of like,
Creative Tattoo Process
00:06:54
Speaker
The trust you know that the exchange that goes on like by modifying like the body with these incredible images and so one of the questions I wanted to ask you about because like you're in a place where you can help me with this is um You paint as well and and and and you do that. I was just wondering if you could take me into um uh
00:07:18
Speaker
what your mind and your process is versus, you know, like you got the, you can manipulate the painting, you can make changes, you can change the color, you can shading. And then for tattooing in creating that panel on the body, how does that shift happen? What's going on there? That's a question I haven't been able to ask.
00:07:41
Speaker
So kind of what is my creative process from getting the client's ideas to actually making the tattoo? Is that kind of the question? Yeah. Okay. So I think of myself as a creative problem solver. I think of tattooing as a lot of logistics. And I think that makes me a little bit more of a left brain artist than
00:08:07
Speaker
than lots of folks are. So it's almost like production design, where I get the person's idea. I get an idea of the area of the body they'd like the piece to go. I will often take a picture of that body part, like say it's your upper arm, I'll have them kind of stand relaxed and take a good photo of that portion, kind of mark up the picture where the tattoo is going to go.
00:08:37
Speaker
And then I then I source a bunch of images for inspiration and reference say it's like say it's going to be a cat portrait, I'll have the client send me a few different photos of their cat. Usually I go for what's in the best lighting in the clearest. That's sometimes hard to get. And then maybe they want to have some crystals and some mushrooms and some flowers with it. So I'll source all those images and kind of do a
00:09:06
Speaker
like a collage basically to figure out composition and then basically sketch out some line work from there. Then I look into balancing darks and lights and color combinations and try to make sure that overall you're not sticking
00:09:27
Speaker
red next to purple that's usually not very flattering. So it's a lot of it is similar to composing a painting but on something that's round and squishy and movable. That's the round and squishy and movable.
00:09:49
Speaker
It's a I love that. I love that language. The panel, the panel, of course, is different. And I was meant I was here. You mentioned in like pictures of cats. I was imagining all these blurry photos. But of course, cats do rest. Cats do rest. And that's when you can get a good photo of a cat when they're not moving, when they're resting 18 hours of the day. So
Art as Problem-Solving and Community Service
00:10:15
Speaker
I wanted to ask you one of the big questions because I know you think a lot about art and you know, you spend so much time with it and been around it throughout your life. Big question. You're an artist. What is art? I think that art at its essence is creative problem solving.
00:10:43
Speaker
And so it could take many forms. It could be how to make the best dinner, how to sew a pair of pants, how to do a good tattoo. Um, but it's, it's always creative problem solving and that requires some skills and some patience and also the passion to want to do a good job at it. Um, I think that at its best art can really be a service to the community as a part of.
00:11:13
Speaker
And I guess I fall back on the art as a skilled craft much more than art as a statement, I guess, in my life.
00:11:30
Speaker
I don't know if this isn't the, what is art so much more as the, what is the role of art? So is it okay if I get into that question too? That's the next question. Yeah, like establishing what art is and now like, what's art supposed to do for us humans? Yeah, absolutely.
00:11:47
Speaker
Okay, cool. I think that art is creative problem solving and it's telling stories. I think that's something that's been used for as long as humans have had any kind of community and culture. I think that it's best, it's a service to the communities that it's a part of.
00:12:13
Speaker
I think that the concept of artist as tortured, starving genius is just so unhealthy and not useful. I just think that art is all around us. It's used and needed for so many different things. The idea that it's really separate from the rest of life is more of a new concept that's not very helpful.
00:12:44
Speaker
Yeah, I appreciate your comments right there because it's like, you know, art ends up being so enmeshed, right? So when you ask the like conceptual question I ask you and it's fast, you know, like what is what is art? Sometimes it's difficult to speak about it's like, how do I pull that piece out of me and say like what it is when like you're saying that's part of life or like,
00:13:07
Speaker
you know, embodying it. And I think that's, it's always an interesting trick. It's almost like asking like, somebody how they are human, right? Like, they're human and be like, what's it like to be human? And I'm like, ah,
00:13:22
Speaker
I don't know. I don't know anything else. Yeah. And similar with art, I mean, I don't really know how to be anything else other than an artist. It's like really kind of all I was set up to be. And to me, it's like, I like, we like you being, we like your being in this way too. Yeah. It's like, I can't really imagine what you're doing otherwise.
00:13:53
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. One of the things I wanted to ask, and it's a little bit more of like the origin story, and it has to do with people and things or influences, but another big question I had is, what are who made you who you are? I think that kind of every experience in your life leaves a mark.
00:14:23
Speaker
And I feel like every day, every experience somehow makes you who you are. But the big things, I would say, certainly growing up around artists. Also, I grew up slightly in the Catholic Church, my dad's family is Catholic. And then my mom, when my parents got divorced, my mom went full 90s pagan and had this amazing,
00:14:52
Speaker
moment of freedom in her life. And so I grew up with a lot of magical thinking, but from very different perspectives. And so I love the ritual and the symbolism and the storytelling that many spiritual paths can give you. I think that's definitely been a force in my life, even though I don't consider myself to be religious.
Evolving Tattoo Culture
00:15:16
Speaker
But the art and the symbolism and the stories
00:15:21
Speaker
That's where my heart is. And then also, we're talking about growing up out in the woods. My dad had a house on a lake, so I just would, even in cold winter months, go down to the lake and spend lots of time by myself just looking at the landscape and having that peace and quiet and room to think. Yeah, being, I think spending a lot of time alone as a kid certainly has made me who I am.
00:15:51
Speaker
Lots of time for creativity and thinking. Development of your imagination. Yeah. Yeah. And I wonder if kids don't feel so much nowadays.
00:16:07
Speaker
Unassigned it's like unassigned unassigned time right in in time to be I I don't know it seems like there there is something different about it as far as like I guess maybe each generation says it but there's a certain feeling that like Even me I grew up in a city like we we'd roam and range and then go play basketball You know like wandering through the city and just kind of like You know
00:16:32
Speaker
make it make it back home and I think like in general there seems to be like some less of those processes of like wandering out and then kind of coming back in and it certainly seems that was a big well maybe almost relaxed constituent part of like your experience in developing your art uh
00:16:53
Speaker
uh, growing up, like the embodying, uh, that, do you, do you think that actually that that component is like noticeably missing right now? Yes. Yeah, for sure. I, I think, I mean, there were many hours where I was just out by myself, didn't have a cell phone at that time. And just, uh, I think where we, where my dad lived, there wasn't even cell service coverage even later on.
00:17:19
Speaker
And so not being tied to technology all the time, not having someone keeping tabs of you all the time. I don't think I've felt that free since I was a kid, honestly. People talk about taking time away from social media and stuff. I think social media has a lot of positives to it, but it's hard to figure out what your own thoughts are when you're constantly absorbing other people's thoughts.
00:17:53
Speaker
There's been a lot of changes that I've seen within tattooing, both in its popularity and just folks making that choice to become tattooed. And a good friend of mine, Sean Browns, a tattoo artist out in Washington, DC, and he's done a few of my tattoos. I've learned a lot from him going back, way back.
00:18:19
Speaker
But I think about our conversations when he was teaching me about tattooing like 25 years ago and how completely different it seems right now. For you as a tattoo artist with its general popularity and more of a cultural acceptance of it, what have you seen and are you kind of excited about this happening? Or is it problematic in some way as far as the changing in tattoo culture?
00:18:53
Speaker
I think everything, there are positives and negatives, but the fact that many more people want to get many more tattoos is not a bad thing. It's keeping us all busy. I'm really thankful that this is a way to be an artist and do okay for yourself and feel like you're really impacting people's lives. That's amazing. I don't think there's anything bad about that.
00:19:28
Speaker
all that kind of stuff. Sometimes the expectations are not the same as the reality. I've definitely had people come in and say, hey, can I just get sleeved up real quick? Because in... I got 45 minutes. Yeah. Can I do this on my lunch break? You can do that, right? You're an artist. And it's like, yeah, it doesn't really happen the same way it does on a 45-minute TV show. I think that
00:19:45
Speaker
But of course, like with reality TV shows and
00:19:55
Speaker
So maybe there's a lot of education that goes into starting a relationship with a new client of like, hey, this is the pace that I work at. This is how you can expect things to go. This is my process. And if that works for you, great. And yeah, if not, there's a thousand other artists out there too who can help you. But yeah, I imagine most industries that have had lots of TV shows done about them, there's a lot of
00:20:23
Speaker
disconnect between TV shows and reality. Yeah, yeah. I wanted to ask you a question. It's been a theme that that's come up and you had mentioned about kind of like the historical like idea of, you know, tortured artist. And I think that take, I mean, in popular culture for a long time, it took the form of like, we think of like the male
00:20:51
Speaker
Tortured white male tortured you know drugs alcohol like that is you know? Now my show Yeah, my my show my show is like then gotten more and more as things develop because things develop with who I talked to towards The the medicine of art towards, you know a certain rejection of like full-on suffering to create the idea that
00:21:21
Speaker
Maybe art is regenerative, celebratory, you know, revealing. And I'm not trying to be Pollyannish about it every time I mention it. It's not, you know, creating things is extremely difficult. But I've been very moved by whether it's within the process or we get from art as medicine and as healing and thinking about it.
00:21:47
Speaker
in that way. Does what I have to say about that, does that fit into your approach of how you look at both the process or being able to produce art to help, to help, to help and to heal? Is it right to say that that's part of your thinking?
Art as Devotion and Healing
00:22:05
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. It's almost like a devotional act, I think, making art, and it's not always easy
00:22:16
Speaker
that it's always fulfilling. And so I think it's healing and helpful both for myself as an individual. And then ideally, if I'm making art that is good, I think it's also helpful for the world. You know, creating something that's either beautiful or engaging or, yeah.
00:22:39
Speaker
I grew up a Rhode Island Catholic. You described some of your background, devotional act. Yeah, I get it.
00:22:55
Speaker
Well, here's my general theory on it. I'm a spiritual wanderer. I grew up Catholic, and that has a particular meaning. Yeah. So I wanted to ask a big question, the podcast's name, since we're speaking about big concept, is I wanted to know
00:23:24
Speaker
why Caitlin, Abdallah, Velasquez, why there is something rather than nothing. Well, my first thought is just because it's more fun that way. But really... That sounds good. It's just more fun and better and more beautiful to have something rather than nothing.
00:23:52
Speaker
Um, I couldn't, I couldn't really tell you why, but since there is something rather than nothing, I think a more important question might be, what do we do with the something that we have? Um, because if we treat something like it's nothing, then things kind of just get screwed up and, and not cared for, but I think that, um, we have something, we have this beautiful, amazing world and we should
00:24:22
Speaker
treat it like it's something that might be really cheesy but that's where my heart's at too well this this this question provokes you know because so profound provokes discomfort and um i think the only release from it is that you know that my last episode won't give the answer whenever that happens
00:24:52
Speaker
But I do enjoy it, and I love your answer. I mean, it really has to do...
00:25:01
Speaker
we're creators, you know, whether creators and magicians and making things and trying to do things. There is a real practical answer that I hear a lot is like, this is what we got. This is what we're trying to do. And I don't know, you know, there's a general, at least I feel humble about it. I don't know, like, I'm glad there's this stuff here. Not sure why, but I'm gonna,
00:25:30
Speaker
I'm going to manipulate it while I'm here and it's here, right? Yeah. I mean, I think other than storytelling materials are the other thing that gets me really inspired.
Creative Joy in Materials
00:25:41
Speaker
And so, yeah, I mean, that's that kind of that goes right to it. Like just having the material to manipulate and play around with is just such an amazing thing. And
00:25:55
Speaker
Yeah, I rolled that question around for quite a while, and yeah, I don't know why. I don't even know if I'm capable of understanding why, because I don't know if I'm capable of really understanding nothing. Since there is something, I don't know that I can even fathom there not being anything. Right. So then I just think, well, since there is something, what am I going to do with it?
00:26:21
Speaker
Yeah, that approach makes a ton of sense to me. Hey, Caitlin, I want you to, if you could, I'd like to get the listeners to know
Where to Find Caitlin's Art Online
00:26:35
Speaker
where to find your art, I enjoy it deeply. Like I said, I'm very excited to have the opportunity to talk to you here. But can you let listeners know where to find your tattoo work, the images, that type of thing, but also the other art that you create as far as so people can come in contact with you and your art?
00:27:00
Speaker
Yeah, thank you. Absolutely. So I did recently combine my art website and my painting website into one. So it's just CaitlinAbdow.com. And there's a right on the homepage, you can you can go tattoo route or painting route. And then I'm also on Instagram, my more fine art Instagram is CaitlinAbdow. And then
00:27:21
Speaker
My tattoo one is Tattoos by Caitlin. That's Caitlin with two N's. Yeah, those are the best ways to find me. And I will be reopening my books for new tattoo clients mid-November. Mid-November. Okay, I'm making a personal note on that one.
00:27:48
Speaker
And thank you for sharing that for folks looking at tattoos. I've always had the difficulty with more visual artists and tattooing, but it's really just like instructions for listeners to go and check out the beautiful images of
00:28:13
Speaker
um in natural images and that are you know by the hand of uh of of kaitlyn and really Explore your art. Um, I I intend in my life soon to Have a kaitlyn and alvelasquez piece of art on me that'll take some time to get to I wanted to Get your answers to why there's something rather than nothing in what is art first? um
00:28:44
Speaker
But I really wanted to thank you for your time.
00:28:52
Speaker
uh, appreciate the images that you put out there and the end of discussion about like what we're up to and trying to create our, and what we're trying to do, you know, maybe to help things, you know, uh, be better, you know, or, or beautiful images to be out there and to inspire us. So, um, Caitlin, I wanted to thank you for that and thank you so much for your time, uh, coming on to the, to the podcast. Um, I know you're super busy, but, uh, really appreciate you being here.
00:29:22
Speaker
Thank you. Thank you so much. I appreciate being here. This is really fun. Thank you so much, Caitlin. This is something rather than nothing.