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Kiki Callaghan, a 2019 Berean Christian graduate has illustrated her first published children’s book. The book is called, The Missing Menorah and is written by Janie-Sue Wertheim. It’s about a fifth-grade boy who wants to figure out how to celebrate Christmas and Hanukkah since both traditions are part of his family’s heritage.
The author had been looking for an illustrator for the book for more than a year without luck. “I guess she just hadn’t found the right fit,” says Callaghan. Kiki had a connection through church and reached out to Wertheim to talk about collaborating on the book. Callaghan landed the job and now has an illustrator credit on a published book to add to her resume.
Callaghan draws inspiration from a childhood full of travel. She spent parts of her young life in California, Texas, Scotland, and then California again. She knew that she wanted to have a career in art when she was fourteen years old. “I liked to draw as a kid,” she says. “I had lots of sketchbooks filled with drawings and doodles.”
As a kid, Callaghan’s parents encouraged her love for art. She entered painting competitions and took some one-on-one lessons. When she was fourteen, her family moved to Scotland where her mother befriended a local art gallery owner. Kiki took painting lessons from the gallery owner where she was encouraged to disregard many of the rules of technique-driven art.
“She taught me to develop a more ‘painterly mindset’,” Kiki says of her old painting instructor. She taught Kiki to paint with her gut, to balance observation with emotion in her work, and to not be so concerned about the end result. In Scotland, Kiki learned that the process of creating the work can be just as valuable as the resulting work itself.
“Sometimes she would tell me to just start putting some paint on the canvas and see what happens,” remembers Kiki. That was an important lesson for Kiki. It taught her that the process of making a painting involved critical thinking and decision-making. She says that’s why so often, people snicker at abstract art – because they are only able to see the result. They cannot see or appreciate the choices the artist made in the process of creating that finished piece.
It was an important philosophy for Kiki to learn early in her education as an artist. When her family moved back to California just before Kiki’s junior year of high school, Kiki learned from a different perspective. In America, she says, the finished piece holds more significance than the process.
Kiki had a hard time leaving Scotland. The family’s home in Scotland sat near an old forest and a field. “It felt beautiful and magical,” Kiki says. The hot, dry weather and urban energy of California was a culture shock for Kiki who describes herself as a shy person. She says that she went through some angsty teenage years during her time at Berean.
Nevertheless, Kiki found a home and some mentors on the faculty of Berean HS. She credits two Berean art teachers with expanding her knowledge of technique and encouraging her to try new mediums like charcoal, chalk, and print-making. Mrs. Filibert and Mrs. Franklin pushed Kiki in new directions during her junior and senior year of high school. In AP Art, Kiki says that she learned an alternative philosophy of art after returning to the U.S. Here, she says that how you get to the finished piece matters less than just working to create a great piece.
After graduating from Berean in 2019, Kiki returned to Scotland to attend college at the University of Edinburgh. But the global pandemic forced her to come back to California. She is now attending Laguna College of Art and Design and really enjoying it. “They are big on learning fundamentals in technique here. I’ve improved a lot since I first got here,” she says. Kiki has found a new direction for her career. After taking a 3D art class, she is excited to point her future toward a career in animation for tv and advertising.
Kiki says that her dad has been a nervous supporter of her desire to build a career in art. He wanted her to get a degree in business to increase her job prospects. But with the new book now in her growing portfolio and a world in love with visual communication, Kiki’s career prospects appear exceedingly bright. She is excited about the opportunity she had to illustrate the children’s book and looks forward to more opportunities like it.
“I love making art,” she says. “I hope I can put beauty into the world with the work I do.”
Even her father would have a hard time arguing with that dream.
Kiki's work can be found at kikicallaghanstudio.com