‘Calli’—the artist who chose simplicity over fame

About 70 years ago, Derrick Michael Callender dropped out of school when, for some reason, his parents could no longer afford to send him.

Determined to make a living, he thought he’d try the one thing that had always resonated with him—painting.

Perhaps being around relatives who were also artists was what truly sparked his interest in the field.

Known both on the local and international art scene, as ‘Calli’—short for his surname, Callender—the 82-year-old has his work displayed in banks, courts, and other prominent places in Guyana, as well as across the world.

Occupying a small space in the Tastee Dish Restaurant on David Street, Kitty, Calli shared his story with News Room on Monday.

A Kitty, Georgetown man all his life, he feels that there is a language only colours can speak.

For the first 30 years, when he started working with them, he described these as the ‘hustle’ years; but the next 40 that followed were the professional ones that led him to become one of the country’s renowned artists.

“I had to go and hustle. I had to go and do something; you gotta eat, you gotta earn your bread. I hustled with my painting until I became highly professional,” he shared.

Even so, Calli doesn’t find much pleasure in pomp and flair. He has always favoured simplicity, opting for small exhibitions whenever he travelled the world.

“I don’t really boast about it, or put on a big hat. No. I like it to be silent in imparting the aesthetic values that are paramount within the artist himself. I don’t want you to think I am this or I am that; no, I am not that. I am just a simple man who is seeing the world like everybody sees the world for themselves,” he expressed.

Also competent as a jazz-rock guitarist, Calli said that if we heard him play, we’d ask him to stop painting and focus on his music.

Despite limited vision, and also a limited education, Calli said he is grateful for the natural gifts he has been bestowed with.

“Some people are born great, some people achieve greatness, and others have greatness bestowed upon them. I think it has been bestowed upon me to do this. I never really picked up a brush and went to school or attended art classes with a teacher or sir,” he said.

“I never looked at it that way. I looked at it as, ‘Hey, I like this sunset; I will put a coconut tree in front of it,’” he added.

Calli doesn’t have much to this day materially; he remains a loner with no family, except for a twin brother in Brazil. But he firmly believes that everyone has their own sense of purpose.

“Most people, I find, don’t know themselves or what they’re doing here. That’s a bad thing to happen to a person. We all have a sense of purpose, and we have to do something about it to make it a reality.”