SummEr/FAll 2011 - Nazareth College

The description makes her think
of finding a kitten, which leads to
her pointing to the black-and-white
checker board painting hanging on her
living room wall. The white squares are
images of her cat’s fur. “It’s all about
concept,” she says. “Sometimes students
think they need to slavishly render the
world, but I allow them to do anything
they want. If they say, ‘I photographed
this great fish head but I’m painting a
street,’ I tell them to cut out the head
and combine the two. You can put
anything together.”
Calderwood often comes up with class
assignments during everyday tasks. One
time while driving, she began thinking
of icons she particularly likes: lobster
tails, diamonds, lemons, irises, bacon,
and yes, squirrel tails. She then asked
her students to come up with their own
list, mixing the icons together into a
pattern for a decorative box.
“What do they all have to do with
each other?” she asks. “Probably nothing.
But I want to see something I’ve
never seen before. That’s what we’re all
looking for.”
Beyond that, she advises her students
to choose truth over the accepted
definitions of beauty.
“Every painting should have some
good and some bad, like the world,” she
teaches. “That keeps you from getting
stuck in predictable patterns. How
come those horrific images of polar
bears falling off the ice flows are on our
minds but students don’t feel they’d be
acceptable subject matter?”
Calderwood gets inspired watching
ideas develop into images in the classroom.
Some of those ideas find their
way into her own vibrant pieces. The
painting of a gummy worm on the dedication
page of her book, for instance,
came after a discussion with one of the
students about “the things you ‘couldn’t’
paint in the past but now you can, and
still be considered a serious artist.”
It’s Perfectly Obvious, by Kathleen Calderwood
Calderwood is proud of the relationships
she has maintained with some of
her former students, some of whom she
taught decades ago. They exchange art
catalogs and information about new
artists and exhibitions, or get together
for lunch.
“She has this wonderful eccentricity,”
says one of those students, Mark Maddalina
’87, a studio art major-turned-architect.
“She always taught us to think a
little differently, and when it serves me,
that’s what sets me apart. Her class was
very insightful.”
At times emotional when she talks
about how thoughtful her students have
been over the years, Calderwood finds
symbolism in a story about a green orchid
one of them gave her just before a
fire last November destroyed her studio
and much of the rest of her house.
After the fire, everything in her living
room was covered in black—except
for the orchid, which started to bloom
soon after.
“My students have been so generous
to me in every way,” she says. “I
wouldn’t know how I could find a
way to repay them for all they have
given me.”
As for her art, Calderwood feels there
is so much more material to explore.
“I hope I live a long, long time,” she
says. “I feel like I’m just starting.”
“She always taught us to think a little
differently, and when it serves me,
that’s what sets me apart.” — Mark Maddalina ’87
Kathy’s Painting, by Kathleen Calderwood
www.naz.edu CONNECTIONS | Summer/Fall 2011 37