Calistro goes from people to panels

Local artist Sandi Calistro opened her latest exhibit, Times Are Hard For Dreamers, at the Super Ordinary Gallery.

"The name of the show actually came from the movie Amelie," she said. "They said it in that movie and I thought it was awesome. So I thought I'd name one of my shows that."

At no point during the night would you see Calistro making a grandiose opening speech, but rather she spent her time behind the bar helping pour drinks, or eating a cupcake talking to a visitor.

Calistro works fulltime as a tattoo artist at Kaze Gallery and throughout the night she mixed in with the crowd talking to what seemed like old faces, maybe even a few people she's tattooed herself, and new ones that just happened upon the gallery that night.

Times Are Hard For Dreamers consists of prints, graphite drawings, and acrylic on hardwood, and features her artwork from up to six years ago. The showcase appears to feature a thematic character with large, exaggerated and dreamy eyes, a classic 20's haircut, and corseted-waist look.

Each piece is uniquely forlorn such as one titled No Yesterday & No Tomorrow, which depicts the duality of life and death using a women—painted in the aforementioned style—sitting next to a skeleton. Calistro said she wants the piece to encourage those who see it to live in the moment because of how short life is.

Calistro said she intends for each piece to stand on its own, but because she doesn't use any real-life faces to draw from that they might appear somewhat similar.

With acrylics being her latest venture, the newer pieces in the exhibit utilize the medium. "I like the way you can water down acrylic. Acrylic is easy to layer and I get that washed out look so you can see the wood underneath," she said.

Calistro said her artwork has a more somber tone to it, which originally sprung from a bad love story.

"My art is a little bit more whimsical and I think the title [of the exhibit] kind of says that as well. I like it to be at first glance happy, but when you look at it, it's a little bit of a downer," she said.

Calistro said tattooing fulltime has definitely shaped and influenced how her artwork has developed over the years. She also said that the degree of permanence with tattooing is what makes it an amazing experience.

"There's more line work in my recent work and think it's because I'm influenced by tattooing and I've met so many amazing artists through tattooing," she said.

At a glance, a few things that stick out about Calistro are her dark hair, Rockabilly fashion, gauges, and variety of tattoos—but she's adamant about not tattooing her own designs on herself.

"There are so many good tattooers in the world and good artists in the world that it's like collecting art," she said.

Calistro's main focus is tattooing, but she said that she will continue to try out other mediums of art. "The mediums balance each other out," she said. "When I get sick of one, I can just switch to another. That way I don't get bored of one thing."