While the world hustles by the windows of his Ketchum gallery, Will Caldwell quietly goes about his work. First and foremost, Caldwell is an artist, a painter; but for this community-minded citizen, work extends far beyond the vibrant colors and serene vistas that line his gallery walls.
Not that Caldwell needs to extend himself beyond the paint and canvases to achieve success—he is the longest continuously exhibited (25 years) local artist in Ketchum—but he also finds pride and a community connection through his musical, political and community projects.
Caldwell is an active conservationist who has maintained an audible voice in the fight for forest conservation and, in particular, against U.S. Forest Service recreation fees.
"I was the first activist in Idaho to fight the recreation fee in the national forest," he said.
He has long championed the cause through legal action and letters to newspapers such as the Idaho Mountain Express and The Idaho Statesman. So last week, when the state Legislature voted to reject those federally mandated fees, Caldwell felt a personal vindication.
When not trying to save the wilds of Idaho, Caldwell can regularly be found on stage, playing drums in the valley's own 812 Band and the Ketchum World Beat Street Band. Both groups are fixtures at the summer Ketch'em Alive Concert Series, a town tradition that Caldwell founded.
"It was my idea and I produced it," Caldwell said of the weekly musical events that take place throughout the summer in Ketchum's Forest Service Park. For Caldwell, there is more to the series, though, than the music.
"I'm involved in the notion of people gathering in a place," he said with the soft-spoken conviction that carries most of his words.
In Caldwell's gallery—which opened on Sun Valley Road in June 2004—it's easy for a conversation to meander down many paths. Peaceful scenes of Penny Lake and Warm Springs Creek, idylls that inspire the artist every time he walks out his front door, naturally lend towards topics of conservation and a reverence for the land. But surrounding these iconic Idaho landscapes are evidence of a lifetime of travel and a career that looked abroad for inspiration.
In rooms within the gallery, small prints taken from large-scale paintings act as dots along the map of Caldwell's often far-flung travels. He has painted scenes of daily life in Israel, China, Peru, Guatemala and, most recently, Mexico's southernmost and highly indigenous state of Chiapas.
As he traveled more and more to Mexico, Guatemala and Peru, the vibrant colors and clean geometry of the countries' Native American cultures increasingly influenced Caldwell's paintings. Whether depicting a woven cloth or the architecture of a Mayan ruin, his gestural brushstrokes have grown to match the cultures' bold expressiveness.
Through time in the colonial cities of northern Mexico, he also grew to care deeply about the social gravity of a central plaza. More than just painting these town centers, Caldwell has been at the forefront of an effort to bring such a concept to Ketchum.
"I came to the conclusion five years ago that we needed a town center and I began talking to city planners about the city acquiring the empty lot (next to Giacobbi Square."
As Ketchum's recent "Designfest" workshop illustrated, Caldwell's idea has been supported by numerous town residents who feel the same way.
Caldwell points to other cities around the West—Jackson, Taos, Santa Fe—as places with successful central focal points that act as boons to local economies and the towns' sense of self.
"Without those central plazas, the memory of a place is like a blur. Your memory of a place is more defined if you have a place that comes to mind visually."
Caldwell's paintings of Mexican towns, which are done largely from memory and photographs, are proof of this theory in his work.
One such town is San Miguel Allende, in the highlands of central Mexico. After traveling there in 2005 with samples of his art, Caldwell's paintings are now being exhibited by the Atanea Gallery, the city's oldest fine-art dealer.
In the past year, Caldwell has found representation in three new galleries outside Idaho, including the Atanea Gallery. As his work has become influenced by native cultures of the southwest United States, his paintings have also been acquired for exhibit by Jane Hamilton Fine Art in Tuscon, Ariz., and the Nichols Taos Gallery in Taos, N.M.
For Caldwell, who lived and pursued his artistic career in the 1970s in Taos, it's a return to a second home. He also shows in Telluride, Colo.
These days, Caldwell is still growing accustomed to his business's prominent home on Sun Valley Road. After two years, the spot still feels new to him, but succeeds in attracting new customers.
"I throw out a lure and try to reel them in," he said with a laugh. What Caldwell enjoys the most about the spot, though, are the conversations.
"In years past, it was kind of lonely working at home in my studio and sending the art out to galleries. I never had a chance to meet people. Here, I get to meet the people buying my art and to connect with them. I really like that."
Will Caldwell with his painting "Calla Girl, St. Christobal," one in a series influenced by the indigenous peoples of Latin America. Photo by Willy Cook
