...pronounced like "choir." I was born in November 1989 in Jacksonville, Florida. Shortly after we, my family, moved to North Charleston, South Carolina; I've thus moved twenty-four times in the surrounding cities. Despite loving Downtown Charleston, I call Summerville my home. Since I was a small lad, I've generally had some form of writing utensil in my hand; this includes jumping on the bed with my lucky pencil at age six and quickly jammed the tip in my gums. It was no longer my lucky pencil; in fact, I'm not sure what made it lucky to begin with. My childhood was primarily filled with only drawings and doodles all the way up to age twenty-four-ish when I decided to pick up watercolor. I hadn't dived into painting in any capacity until about then and cannot remember the reason I chose watercolors. A couple of years passed without much improvement which was attributed to my overall lack of drive to get better. It wasn't until I casted out the options of a typical "9-5" job by getting "knuckle bangers" - tattoos on my fingers or knuckles as it is- that read "SOAR HIGH" and later on "LOVE HOPE" on the remaining space, that I thrusted myself into the life of art. I had to get serious. I rejected being trapped by monotony and began my journey down a rough and unpredictable road. But that road has been anything but monotonous and full of adventure and experiences.
I had a small bout of college for graphic design and enjoy doing freelance designing when the occasion arrives. I'm a stickler for composition which flows into my meticulously planned paintings and a even the way I conduct myself in life. I dabbled with several different styles through the years but have, much to my happiness, settled on animal wildlife and nature paintings; which is what I still do to this day.
Painting and drawing have always been my main focus and broadcasted talent. But you would be correct in assuming that I tested out other artistic avenues along my journey: photography, filmmaking, block printing, graffiti, animation, web design, wood burning, and writing. Most of these were respectively short lived even if I enjoyed them as much as photography, filmmaking, and block printing. One of those, however, I've been practicing for a long time but have rarely expressed the hobby; I'm talking about my writing.
When I was about ten-ish, maybe, I had a poem published in a book. It isn't very good but my parents raved about it for many following years. When I was twenty-three, I set out to create and online magazine called, Maison De La Rue, which is French for "House of the Street-or Street House." It was meant to bring the passions of my group of friends and share it with the world. It quickly failed after only two months from poor planning and lack of willing writers, (Convincing your friends who don't write, to frequently write, is an equation for failure). There is a folder that I have on my phone and computer, updated infrequently, titled Shitty Poems, that holds...you guessed it, poetry collected over a handful of years. There is also a couple of years worth of blog posts to go through on this website. I mention all of this because I truly love writing and want to see where this passion can lead me and what doors it can unquestionably open.
Time to get to work.
-Caleb