Absurd, playful, nostalgic and discomfiting – the artwork of local artist, Lucinda Calder, is a multilayered and colourful world full of fire, clowns, canines, smoking, bowling, and other ‘adult’ entertainment.

Calder’s solo exhibit, So Far, So Good, opens on Thursday, July 20th (6-10pm) at the Slice of Life Gallery, and will be on display until Tuesday, July 25th. Guarantee you’ll get in on the opening reception (with the artist in attendance) by putting in your RSVP here. In the meantime, familiarize yourself with the artist via our Q&A below…

First of all, please tell me a bit about yourself.

I’m an artist and illustrator living in Vancouver. I grew up in a really small town in the West Kootenays called Kalso, before I moved here to go to art school. These days, I’m freelancing and putting together work for a gallery show.

Your Instagram feed provides a fairly detailed account of your art school years and subsequent evolution/documentation of your personal style… How long did it take you to develop your current aesthetic? Do you ever look back and reflect on your own development and, if so, is there anything in particular that makes you smile or cringe, when you do?

Wow, I love this question because if you look at my Instagram feed it really does take a drastic turn around 2021 from being botanical illustration to this more playful, colourful, children’s book-like illustration style. I think around that time I was feeling so much pressure to make work that utilized my technical ability to render stuff, that it sort of paralyzed me creatively. I felt like I had to prove to everyone that I knew how to paint really well, which turned art-making into something that didn’t feel joyful. This is really what pushed me into making the work that I’m doing now. I did a full 180 and just started working in my natural drawing style, pulling things right from my brain to the page without any planning, and indulging the intuitiveness of it all. I look back on my development and smile because I feel like I had one of those great art breakthroughs that artists talk about all the time, haha. I just started making the work I feel like I should have been making all along, and it feels good.

“Major inspiration for me is how crazy and chaotic life is, while at the same time being mundane and repetitive. I think that duality creates a sweet slice of life element that appears in all my work.”

We’ve been looking forward to your new show – opening at SOL later this month – for quite some time now. Depending on how you look at it, the title that you settled on (So Far, So Good) has optimistic or ominous undertones to it. How are things actually shaping up, “so far”?

I chose the title So Far, So Good because of exactly that: the optimistic and ominous undertones. I think it adds an interesting narrative to each piece that I’ll be showing, because oftentimes things aren’t depicted to be going “so good”. Also, the first ever piece of art I made in this style I named “So Far, So Good”, so I guess in a way it’s also a tribute to this whole new era of art I’ve been making.

What’s your current general mood, now that your show opening is just around the corner?

I’m feeling excited – things are coming together and I’m thrilled that people get to come see my work in real life!

The theme of your series is ‘chaos, comedy and true stories’. The former two ideas are very apparent in the recent artwork of yours that I’ve seen; but the latter is usually not so obvious. How much of your new series was inspired by actual happenings and personal experiences? What makes a “true story” art worthy to you?

Major inspiration for me is how crazy and chaotic life is, while at the same time being mundane and repetitive. I think that duality creates a sweet slice of life element that appears in all my work. Also, my childhood has been a huge inspiration recently – drawing from memories and feelings of chaos and uncertainty has become more and more of a reference point. More and more recently I’ve been using my childhood as a reference for some of the crazy things that I put in my work. I’ve used old family photographs of cars and furniture on fire, birthday parties, and family events as reference photos. I guess part of that feels very self-indulgent, but also making art about my lived experiences feels the most authentic. And not everything in the show is inspired by true stories – oftentimes it’s just the feeling of something chaotic and comical and tragic happening all at the same time that feels the most relatable and true when I make my work, not necessarily the specifics of what’s actually depicted. I think that way it has the potential to be relatable to lots of people.

A lot of details, nostalgia and pop culture references find their way into your paintings. What is one pop culture relic that you’re obsessed with in particular, and why is it significant to you?

Honestly, I’ve really been obsessed with drawing old porno magazines, haha. Those qualify as a relic, right? I just think there’s so much room to make them look silly, and I think people laugh when they notice it hidden in a drawing. These types of details are important to me because it’s shocking, but also brings a lighthearted and comical element to my paintings.

Your recent paintings are also a sort of ‘Easter egg hunt’ – I have the feeling that the more I look, the more things I discover. What is one such detail, in particular, that you especially like, that viewers should look out for?

A consistent detail I like people to notice is how unbothered the animals and characters remain when something crazy is happening right beside them. Also, everything’s on fire!

Speaking of surprises: have you got any planned for the show opening that you would like to tease our readers about?

I have a piece that’s 20×28″! (It’s only a surprise because I always work within a 6 x 6 inch square.)

From what I’ve seen, you’ve dabbled in some custom hand-painted tote bags in the past, and you recently started experimenting with gouache (versus your typical watercolours). Got any projects already planned, or ideas for future projects, that you care to share with Scout readers?

Yeah, for sure. I’ve been putting together some designs for totes, which I think will be exciting. Also: working bigger! I have plans to move away from the 6×6″ canvas and do larger work in the future.

Last question: A solo art show, to me, implies the culmination of something – the completion of a body of work and/or an artistic phase… What does July 20th signify to you? What about July 21st?

It’ll be exactly two years since I started making these paintings, which feels significant, but I actually only noticed that after I chose the date. And also, to be honest, my best friend is in town that week and I wanted it to line up.