We had the good fortune of connecting with Mike Caplanis and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Mike, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?
My business was jump started by retirement. I’d spent 36 years in advertising and had always done editorial illustration as a side hustle—books, magazines, newspapers, etc. Retirement, along with showing and selling my work at various galleries threw my path forward into sharp focus from then on.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I am an editorial caricaturist. My work is humor-based. Mostly pen, ink and watercolor. Caricature is an ancient form of graphic ridicule (and therefore criticism). In centuries past, caricaturists in some cultures were arrested, jailed and sometimes put to death for their skill. Thankfully, those times are long gone! But in some parts of the globe, making fun of authority figures in this way is still a dangerous business.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Where I live in the northern Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, there is a world class museum of art, craft and history. It is the Museum of the Shenandoah Valley. And the curators have a well deserved reputation for taste and sensibility. The building was designed by Michael Graves and has itself won many awards for its design and practicality of purpose. Traveling exhibits span the creative universe and you’re as likely to see the work of contemporary portrait painter Chuck Close as you are Norman Rockwell or Pablo Picasso—all 3 recent exhibitions.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
A cosmic shoutout to the late illustrator Richard Thompson, about whom, too much cannot be said. His satirical sense and artistic skill were, and are unmatched. He was a young man when he passed away just a few years ago. He had begun a daily comic strip in the Washington Post—Cul de Sac—that everyone recognized to be the equal of Charles Schulz’ ‘Peanuts’ or Bill Watterson’s ‘Calvin and Hobbs’. I was fortunate to get some of the work he was just too busy to take on, such was his esteem. We all miss him.

Website: mikecaplanis.com

Instagram: mike_caplanis

Nominate Someone: ShoutoutArizona is built on recommendations and shoutouts from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.