Today we’d like to introduce you to Isiah McCalla.
Hi Isiah, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
Everything started when I was about five years old with just a pencil and a piece of paper. I remember my art class back in elementary school and being assigned to create a drawing of someone close to me. Around the time my family had no official home to live in, so we stayed with relatives for a while. I happened to see an old photo of my cousins sitting next to each other for a Christmas picture, and something told me, “this is what I want to recreate”. This image of two individuals close to me. People who I see as older brothers. I began drawing, and within a few hours, it was complete. Not realizing I had put in a lot of detail for a 5th grader. After that drawing, I continued my journey as a self-taught artist. The only resources I had for some time were graphite pencils and notebook paper, nothing fancy. My subjects would be certain shoes, actors, characters, anything that my mind wanted to see on paper. Even random doodles!
By the age of fourteen, I picked up painting. Getting used to the medium was very difficult for me since I was so used to drawing. I did not know how to blend colors well or have a specific palette. There were a few paintings that I admired, but none compared to my style or appealed to me how my sketches were. So I gave the medium up and stuck with drawing for the next couple of years. Around January of 2022 was the first time I had picked up a paintbrush ever since I was fourteen. Sticking to one medium became boring to me, so I decided why not give painting another try. From that point on, I just couldn’t stop. Instead of using my eye to draw out certain details, I had to be more loose with things to bring more attention to different parts of my work.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
There have been times where I’ve wondered if what I create is something people would admire, or understand. That’s just the overall mind of a creative artist, you know? I didn’t have the luxury of going to art school or having an entourage of friends with similar interests growing up, so I had to use my own space to get that luxury of being an artist. In the beginning, when I would paint at the park, toting all of my supplies and a 24” x 36” canvas was exhausting. Taking the train didn’t make anything better. So I refrained from taking a lot of things, unless necessary. Speaking of supplies, that’s something I had dealt with for a while. Lack of supplies. Paint is expensive! Inflation is only making it more difficult for me to restock. No supplies, no paintings. Another challenge was getting known for my art, and building a solid community. When I first started looking around Atlanta to find opportunities of showing my work in local galleries, I had no luck. Finding grants around the city was quite difficult as well. There were some things I did not qualify for, or found out at the last minute and missed deadlines.
This had also applied while looking across the country, and in other countries as well. How could I get compensated and get the people to see my vision? Every thought just raced through my head. Fast forward a few months later, I was given the opportunity to be a part of an amazing group of individuals at Peters Street Station in Castleberry Hill. I had attended their “Styles 2.0” exhibit back in early July of 2022 and was always fascinated by the place. It was then when I wanted to be a part of the history they were making. Peters Street Station was founded by Miya Bailey who is not only an artist but also a philanthropist and innovator. September 12th was Miya’s exhibit for “Government Cheese”, and I was assigned to help sell his merchandise. It was really an amazing event and his work spoke volumes to many of his supporters. The space is a community art & design center where there are weekly events held for local creators. The people there are one of a kind, and the place speaks for itself honestly. You’ll have to come out and see with your own eyes. With spending my time there these few months, I have not only grown with being more creative as an emerging artist but truly learn from wise people. That’s one thing I admire, wisdom and advice.
Along with that, I’ll be a part of a show for Peters Street’s 16th anniversary! This will be my first time being in a show with other artists, and I can’t wait to see what’s in store. Following that, I got my first studio space downtown at MET Atlanta in Mutiny Artwrx, where I show most of my paintings in the gallery. Both finished and unfinished. I hold studio house parties once a month to bring life back into the space like how things used to be before COVID happened. My studio is located right next to the MINT Gallery, so it’s not hard to miss. Come say hello and hang with me.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
Today I specialize in creating abstract and expressive paintings rather than portraits to fully widen my range of subjects. I’ve started doing large-scale paintings and it’s been fun making marks everywhere. Majority of my work consists of acrylics, oil, oil pastels, charcoal, any medium you can think of. I’m proud to say that my largest work of art as of today is 6 feet high. It’s called “La femme with the wool hair”. The painting is a mixture of various symbols depicting the factors of the woman being the most important part of life. Learning different languages over the years plays a major role in my work as well. The languages tend to be either Spanish or French. I’m fluent in Spanish, and started picking up French a few years ago. C’est la vie. There’s days where I’ll be painting crazy marks from a feeling, or I’ll create a 4 hour drawing just for the hell of it. I tend to lose interest quickly, so that’s a reason why my subjects are all over the place. I’m known for having a lot of vibrant and hidden meanings in my paintings. That and being very intellectual. Having people really think outside of the “usual” understanding is what I love incorporating my art with in general. It’s a real conversation starter for you to see how my brain works and how we as humans can correlate with each other. Some like to say my style reminds them of Basquiat, Picasso, or Van Gogh, but it’s more than that. It’s a mixture of every artist…plus me. You mix confusion with art, and now you have abstraction. Then there’s the one creating that confusion, myself. My art is “aesthetically grungy”. I like making hatch marks to show my intricacies and beauty within a mad mind. That’s something many can’t accept with themselves you know?
Are there any apps, books, podcasts, blogs or other resources you think our readers should check out?
I suggest picking up journaling. It’s a way to record moments and share thoughts with the world during your journey. Currently, I’m reading this book called “Pasquale’s Nose” by Michael Rips. It’s about Rip leaving his job in New York to settle in the small village of Sutri in Italy. He decided to emigrate because of his wife’s career as an artist. Rips stays at home all day while she works on a new series of paintings. The village has a lot of weird stuff going on and secrets that Rips find out through his time there. It’s really a European version of the tv show series “Atlanta”. You can’t miss the surrealism shown throughout this book at all.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://Instagram.com/isiahsmccalla
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/isiahmccalla
