COURIER photo/Gabriel Fenoy
Artist Rick Caughman inside his Ontario studio Art@5th Alley. Mr. Caughman had his artwork installed recently inside the International Arrivals Terminal at Ontario International Airport.
Artist brings work back home
Celebrating his 50th birthday last month, Ontario artist Rick Caughman returned to Claremont to share his body of work with hundreds of colleagues and family members at the Claremont Packing House, just blocks away from the family home where he started his career more than 25 years ago.
“I’ve been very, very lucky,” Mr. Caughman said. “It was beyond my expectations to have so many people come over.”
The October 14 show, entitled “A 25-year Retrospective,” traced the progression of Mr. Caughman’s long and diverse career from his days as a student at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena to his current work as a commercial artist. Part of the local arts scene for more than two decades, he has worked in a wide variety of fields, ranging from product branding and commissioned paintings to digital art and photography.
“The term Renaissance Man is overused,” he said. “But I do so many things.”
Mr. Caughman’s work has appeared in a wide variety of formats on both the local and national levels. In addition to designing informational pamphlets and brochures for a number of industrial firms across the nation, he has done extensive work with companies hoping to create unique packaging for their products. Past clients include Cumberland Packing Group, the makers of Sweet’n’Low, and, most recently, the Irvine-based F&A Cheeses Corporation.
“My work is accessible,” he said. “When you see the work that I do, you probably don’t recognize that it’s me—but you’ve seen my work.”
Mr. Caughman has also done a number of pieces for the LA/Ontario International Airport, including brochures, ads and murals. He started working on pieces for the airport straight out of college, and, 25 years later, continues to do commissioned artwork for the airport’s community relations office. His latest project is a set of 16 full-length wallscapes depicting life in the Inland Empire set to be installed later this year in the Ontario International Arrivals Terminal where they will be seen by travelers from across the globe.
“It’s just for people to feel more comfortable when they arrive at the airport,” he said.
Whether designing letterheads for Claremont businesses or working on national advertising campaigns, Mr. Caughman does all of his work out of his quaint studio in the heart of the College Park neighborhood in Ontario. The historic building, aptly named the Carriage House, complete with a functioning old-fashioned gas oven and carriage space in the garage, was refurbished to fit his needs and has, for the past 20 years, provided much-needed working space for the artist. (story continues below)
COURIER photo/Gabriel Fenoy
Artist Rick Caughman stands in front of his artwork recently installed inside the International Arrivals Terminal at Ontario International Airport. The airport features several of Mr. Caughman's pieces.
The move to Ontario was not the first time that Mr. Caughman was forced to relocate in pursuit of his passion.
Originally from Upstate New York, he moved to California to pursue an arts education. His parents and his 5 brothers joined him in Claremont after he graduated from high school in order to support him through his 4 years as a student at the Arts Center College of Design. Mr. Caughman’s mother and a few of his brothers still live in Claremont.
“He started since he was a little boy, painting on my walls,” said his mother, Irma Caughman. “We decided to invest the money, and it was worth it.”
Living in Claremont while attending classes in Pasadena, Mr. Caughman got his start on a number of side-projects for Claremont businesses. After earning his bachelor of fine arts degree in advertising illustration, he found work freelancing for a number of local firms, including the Hunter House publishing company where he met his wife. He later went on to form L.R. Caughman and Caughman, Inc. with his brother Bruce that, at its peak, employed some 15 artists in 2 office buildings. Mr. Caughman has since become a more independent artist—what he calls an “army of one.”
Almost immediately after graduating from college, Mr. Caughman was also asked to lead classes at Chaffey College in Rancho Cucamonga, where he has served as adjunct professor for the past 25 years. Bringing his real-life experience into the classroom, Mr. Caughman said that he hopes to give students a taste of what the commercial art world is really like, and arm students with the skills necessary to sustain a career in the arts in the digital age.
“I feel the thing that I can give students is a commercial appeal to art,” he said.
In the coming years, Mr. Caughman hopes to continue his commercial work, but also expand his artistic horizons.
“My druthers is that in 25 years, I would have more personal work to show and less commercial work,” he said.
For now, though, Mr. Caughman is content, and happy to have the opportunity to share his work.
“I love my job,” he said. “I’m very fortunate.”
— Travis Kaya
Artist's work found in area cities
Andrea Bennett, Staff Writer
Article Created: 04/22/2008 07:05:59 PM PDT
ONTARIO - Local artist Rick Caughman, 50, lives and works in Ontario, but his creative enterprise and career have entrenched him in several surrounding cities as well. Caughman and his wife, Jennifer, 44, live with their son Tim, 14, and daughter Emily, 10, in the College Park Historic District, where they settled 17 years ago.
He spends his days in an art studio he created in the Ontario historic landmark known as the Carriage House. "It's 10 blocks away, so my commute is perfect," Caughman said. And by evening, the adjunct professor at Chaffey College teaches night classes in drawing, painting and his first love - illustration. "I love the connection with students, and I'm treated beautifully at Chaffey College," he said. "The nighttime kids are really talented and committed."
In January, Caughman had his third show at the dA Center in Pomona, featuring charcoal and ink drawings in his exhibit "Play People or What's My Story?" And he displayed the evolution of his work at the Packing House in Claremont for his 50th birthday celebration, which also paid tribute to his quarter century as a commercial artist and teacher. His work can be viewed at L.A./Ontario International Airport's customs terminal, where more than a dozen digitally enlarged murals of his acryllic paintings intend to have a welcoming effect and are decribed by Caughman as "happy primitive."
Caughman admits his creative roots were in Claremont, where he met his wife, began working for local publishers and first ran his advertising business. "Even with today's market and property values going down, it's still very hard for any artist to find workable space where you can afford to be an artist," he said. "You have to be extremely established, or very lucky, to have a space in Claremont these days."
Affordability is what attracted Caughman to Ontario in the first place. Now he says he can't imagine living in a nicer neighborhood or working in a more ideal studio. The city's art scene, however, still needs some work. "I'm happy to be here, and there's a lot going on, but I don't think art is at the top of the list," he said. "There's tremendous potential. It just takes someone with the interest and the means to want that for Ontario."
For more information, contact Rick Caughman at his studio at (909) 988-5670, or via e-mail at art@5thalley.com.
andrea.bennett@
dailybulletin.com
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