This series of articles will feature a discussion with a contemporary artist centered around five simple questions that will allow us to explore their artistic journey, creative process, and sources of inspiration.  Our first Spotlight Artist is Jaimon Caceres.  Jaimon is a colored pencil artist based in Raleigh, NC.

Jaimon Caceres is an accomplished colored pencil artist based in Raleigh, NC.  He grew up on a small family farm in western North Carolina.  His artistic career began as a ballet dancer.  Following an unfortunate injury Jaimon hung up his dance shoes and returned to his first love, drawing.

Jaimon is inspired by beauty, finding  it in a variety of subjects from ballet to historic cities and nature. Any subject can translate visually with colored pencils, and he loves challenging himself with each new series to push the boundaries of what is possible with this medium.

Currently he lives in downtown Raleigh, NC, with his husband and two dogs. You can see his work in person at his studio in Artspace (studio 214).

Jaimon Caceres
Artspace NC, Studio 214
201 E Davie St
Raleigh NC, 27601
hello@jaimoncaceres.com
www.jaimoncaceres.com

What is your earliest memory of making art?

JC:  My earliest memory is kind of a funny one. I’ve drawn since before I can remember. I have vivid memories of sitting in my bedroom and running out of paper constantly, and then drawing on my white bedroom walls with crayons.

How did you come to your current primary media?

JC:  I’m the youngest of four kids, and some of my older siblings were actually very good with graphite. They did a lot of really interesting graphite sketches, and I always loved what they did. As I got older, I started experimenting with it myself. I really did want color though. Initially, I was intimidated by colored pencils, so as I got into young adulthood, experimented with most of the mediums out there. And all of the liquid-based, paints and things, just didn’t behave, and I didn’t enjoy that. I like really being able to have the precession that I needed. So that kind of brought me back to my pencils.  Then I slowly started trying colored pencils, and it really just stuck. Kind of the marriage of the color I wanted and being able to control it the way I need to.

What inspires your art? / Where does your art come from?

JC:  I love this question because, I think it has changed for me over time.  To be honest right now, it’s kind of going through a process of change at the moment, which is exciting. A common thread has always been depth. Really dramatic imagery, dramatic lighting, dramatic color, that’s always what I’m drawn to, and that is what I am hoping to create in my art.  I do feel at times I have strayed in and out of that, and it hasn’t always been as clear.  But as I am a little bit more, I hope, mature in my career, I’m kind of honing in on what that feeling is.

What advice would you give artists just starting their art journey?

JC:  I could talk about this for hours, but I have narrowed it down to four things:

1. Know who you are as a human being.  Because if you don’t know who you are, and what’s important to you, and what you love, your art isn’t really going to say anything.  So, then what’s the point? But it is really hard sometimes to know who you are, very vulnerably. So, figuring that out is a good first ground zero kind of step.

2. Only take advice from people that are experts. I don’t know what it is but as soon as you are a visual artist, everyone has an opinion on how you should be doing things.  You wouldn’t meet a surgeon and tell them you really should be operating on people this way… So, only take advice from people whose careers you admire and know what they are talking about. Because taking the wrong advice can really mess you up.  It’s messed me up.

3. Accept and fully embrace that you will make a million mistakes. That was so hard for me.  It is still sometimes challenging, I think because we care so much about it, or we wouldn’t be doing it.  What we put out into the world we want to be, you know, perfect, and it’s never going to be.  And sometimes we are going to really screw things up. I think the faster you just embrace the fact that is going to happen and get over it, it just makes life so much easier, and allows room for creativity to come in.

4. This is really the most important one, and my mantra, remember to enjoy creating.  It is so simple, but we forget. The whole point is to be doing something that we love. We get in the mire sometimes of the figuring out, and the trying to make it work, and get ourselves out there.  And it is all very frustrating and then we realize we have to be businesspeople as well as creatives, and that’s just extremely annoying. But at the end of the day, the whole point is that we love it. And I have to remind myself of that daily.  Ok, I’m doing this because I love it.  So I allow myself to love it.

What artist would you recommend that people check out, and why?

JC:  Kind of a recent discovery, her work is completely different from mine. There is a London-based contemporary abstract painter named, Alice Sheridan.  Her work is great, there is something about the way she is presenting it. Her social media, and on her website and she has a podcast in it. She is just completely like doing her.  It obvious in her work, there is no bullshit. I’ve been really enjoying her lately, and I got to meet her over Zoom and chat with her a little bit.

Listen to our full conversation on the Artist Spotlight podcast.