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If you attended November’s GSR Fine Art Festival at the Mayo Clinic Health System Event Center, you walked past Caitlin Lang. As the 2024 Up & Coming Artist, she was right up front.
Maybe you stopped to look at her portraits of rockers such as Jerry Garcia, Alice Cooper and others displayed behind the table where she sat and sketched. Looking up from her pad, she would have greeted you with a big, inviting smile representative of the connection she strives to make with her portrait subjects.
“Everybody has a unique face, and trying to match what I’m seeing on a reference (photo) and re-creating it. I can’t really explain why, but it’s just kind of always been my go to … what I’m most comfortable doing,” she said.
It’s one of the three P’s she focuses on in her art: portraits, paintings and prints. She also enjoys teaching youth, giving classes regularly at the Grand Center for the Arts and Culture in New Ulm between creating art and her full-time job.
As the first person people see when entering GSR, the annual Thanksgiving weekend event in Mankato, it seemed like the best place to show off a new talent, said GSR founder Sacha Bliese.
“We realized we had a nice area in the hallway and wanted to invite people into the space (and) start them thinking about the process of making art,” Bliese said.
And it’s important to have the right person there, said Shelley Caldwell, the 2017 Up & Coming Artist who helped select Lang.
“Perhaps most importantly is someone who reflects the ‘fine art’ aspect of the festival,” Caldwell said. “Caitlin Lang was ultimately chosen for the 2024 honor based on her artistic and professional merit.”
A Springfield native who earned her bachelor’s in studio art with an emphasis on black-and-white portraits from Southwest Minnesota State University, she figures her works are now 50-50 black and white and color.
In seeking a variety in her works, she likes creating blocks for printmaking because it involves removing material to create the image. That’s the opposite of paintings where you add lines and color to bring out the subject.
“I really like to do that with my printmaking, with my linoleum block prints, because you can do them with as many colors as you want,” Lang said. “Historically, the main color has been these big, black, bold lines, shapes of an image. But I always think it’s fun to put these little pops of color in that just kind of grab somebody’s eye.”
When creating a commissioned portrait, she wants more than just a static image to work from. In learning about the person — little quirks and personality — she finds ways to re-create her subject and bring out those unique characteristics.
“You want to keep (the face) as close as you can to the photo, but the background is kind of the free range where I can kind of play around and can put them anywhere. Where they want to be,” is how she looks at the process.
That’s where learning about the person and sharing pictures with them as it progresses are important. When you share the evolving image, you can tell by the look on a person’s face if you got it right, she said.
“I don’t really know how to explain it, but I think that’s why the drawings I do for fun and samples are a lot of musicians. I can listen to that music, I can connect to it, and I know how it makes me feel and how other fans feel about the music.”
Lang is reengaging with her art after a several-month break. While having several forms of art to work in helps keep her inspired, she said she needed time away to help refocus.
Her work as a post-surgical housekeeper at New Ulm Medical Center allowed her to clear her mind of art in an energizing way, she said.
“As I’m doing that, I can just kind of think about, OK, maybe I should start doing this for another painting. I love it because it gives my mind a break.”
She has done exhibits at locations such as the Coffee Hag and created cards and different-sized totes for sale. She now looks forward to working toward her next show. She gets inspiration from working with young artists exploring the world around them.
“It definitely makes me think a lot more,” said Lang, who admitted she has no background in teaching.
“It makes me think a lot more, like what little skills and terminology can we incorporate? … How do I bring this down to a kid’s level but still make it informative and that they’re learning something?”
No matter what Lang is doing, Caldwell said, her hard work and talent show.
“Caitlin is not only skilled with a range of materials and processes but is also creative in their application, resulting in work that is striking, thoughtful and relatable.”
And as Lang comes back to it after a break, she hopes to get to the point where her art will be her primary focus over a more traditional job.
Learn more at caitlinlangart.com or look for her on Facebook.
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