Hello! My name is Caleb Mehl.
I am a contemporary surrealist, and I draw inspiration from artists like Remedios Varo and Johfra Bosschart, whose works convey strange and fantastical subjects. An overarching theme in my work is the unique relationship between loneliness and playfulness. My creative process is a form of escapism, where I can bend the rules that are restrictive in reality. I experience a playfulness when I’m making art, and I seek to express and share this with the viewer. I alternate between themes of biological and environmental anomalies and physical visualizations of internal human struggles in my art. When someone observes my art, I don’t want them to see the world in its socially accepted state. Instead, I hope as viewers experience my art, they are able to cut their ties from their social realities, and explore what the imagination can provide, and question the restrictions and rules we often blindly accept in our daily lives. Through my twenty-two years of living, I have noticed that the way people perceive me is often very different from how I perceive myself. This occurs with my art as well, and I have fully embraced it. The unique interpretations that viewers bring to my art only serve to enhance it. I enjoy asking people what they feel when they view my art, because it is usually very different from what I was feeling when I created it. My art is successful when a different narrative occurs within each viewer. These unique narratives give more power and depth to the art that I show the world, and create new possibilities for both my own future work and for each viewer’s concept of their own realities. |