The pink dinosaurs crashing through foliage on Velveteen Rabbit’s patio wall can only mean JW Caldwell’s been there. Not only do the two Carcharodontosauruses bear the Vegas-based artist’s distinctive painting style, but Caldwell’s previous series of paintings had his trademark cowboys riding the prehistoric animals. We ask him for a few details.
The scenery: “I’ve been working on camouflage patterns. So I made a pattern that’s a cross between camouflage and Hawaiian T-shirts.”
Why dinos? “The last couple of shows I wanted to make bigger and bigger dinosaurs. Now I got a whole wall. It’s a subject matter that’s really accessible. It goes into my whole fascination with evolution. And I just think a big pink dinosaur is cool.”
On cowboys and dinosaurs in his recent series of works: “It plays into extinction. I grew up in a cowboy community and now there aren’t as many cowboys.”
Velveteen Rabbit, 1218 S. Main Street
