Young Kentucky artists making a name outside of the Bluegrass: Three to watch

While Lexington celebrates Shawn Okpebholo’s burgeoning success this month with the Lexington Philharmonic debuting his new work, he is far from the only performer from the Bluegrass receiving recognition for their talents well beyond the Commonwealth. In almost every artistic endeavor, Central Kentuckians are honing their skills and seeing how far they can take their careers.

Here is a look at three area creatives at various stages of making names for themselves beyond the Bluegrass.

Wylie Caudill, painter

A Kentucky artist with a “signature rose” in their repertoire would seem to be destined to become the official Kentucky Derby Artist. But Wylie Caudill didn’t even know that was a thing until he was contacted about the job by Churchill Downs and Woodford Reserve early in 2023.

“They had seen my artwork across social media,” Caudill said, taking a break from Derby-week activities. “I had been painting the exterior of Woodford Reserve bottles, and I think that got Woodford’s attention.”

Serendipity has been another signature of Caudill’s art career.

The Cynthiana native was always painting and drawing as a hobby, but he never thought of it as a potential job. He went to the Governor’s School for the Arts for film-making and Eastern Kentucky University to study film and broadcast journalism. But he became known around campus for large chalk drawings he created.

After graduation, he was working the cash register at Kentucky for Kentucky’s store when a call came in from a Frankfort restaurant seeking a mural of one of the company’s logos and someone to paint it.

That launched a mural career that has taken him on the road and earned work for MTV, YouTube, Mountain Dew and others. Then the 150th Kentucky Derby came calling.

The Derby artist gig has involved a lot of opportunity and a lot of work, including two weeks to paint two major pieces that happened to coincide with Caudill moving into a new apartment. All he had was a mattress and no time to shop for furniture.

“Those two weeks, I was painting the two most important paintings of my life,” Caudill said. “I’d work 16 hours a day painting these things and just go a few feet and fall on the mattress and fall asleep and then wake back up and paint for like two weeks.”

With the race run, Caudill’s reign as Derby artist is coming to a close, but the impact will last.

“It has been just so overwhelming in such a wonderful way,” Caudill says. “Lots of painting, lots of painting roses. But I mean, the Derby has really just launched me into the stratosphere.”

Danni Quintos, poet

The first section of “Two Brown Dots,” Danni Quintos’ debut book of poetry, contains imagery so distinct and precise it makes the reader wonder when exactly she started writing. Quintos laughs and says a lot of those details come from author and teacher Lynda Barry who would have students make lists like “tennis shoes you remember from childhood” or “10 other people’s moms” to find memories to explore.

“You’re kind of time traveling in this place and looking at the leaves and listening to the sounds and thinking about what the ground looks like, and who else is there,” Quintos said, taking a breather from finals week at Bluegrass Community & Technical College where she is an assistant professor of humanities and assistant writing coordinator.

In 2022, “Two Brown Dots” won the A. Poulin, Jr. Poetry Prize and was published by BOA Editions Ltd., introducing the poetry world to Quintos’ distinct voice summed up by none other than Lexington literary luminary Nikky Finney.

“Who but the Filipina girl, the keen discerning granddaughter of lola, with the unquiet mind, could turn the hurt and brutality, the invisibility of coming of age in late 20th century America, into an iridescent book of modern day brown girl psalms,” Finney wrote of Quintos’ debut.

Quintos became serious about writing in high school, attending the School for Creative and Performing Arts at Lafayette High School and Governor’s School for the Arts in creative writing. The Governor’s School and her teachers there, particularly author Ellen Hagan, helped set Quintos on her path to a writing career.

“I think the reason why I’m still a poet and why I have a book and why I’m still writing another book, like she is very much the engine that helps me and keeps me on track,” Quintos said.

In high school, Quintos thought she wanted “to get as far away from Kentucky as possible,” and pretty much did, going to Evergreen State College in Olympia, Wash. But after graduate school at Indiana University, she felt Kentucky calling her home where she is part of a literary tradition including fellow Affrilachian Poets Frank X. Walker and Crystal Wilkinson.

Quintos, president of the Kentucky State Poetry Society, is bashful about being mentioned with other Lexington literary figures but also recognizes she is now in a place to inspire. Reflecting on what she hopes students take from her story, Quintos paraphrases Toni Morrison’s quote about writing the book you need to read.

“I’m writing the book that I needed as a teenager,” said Quintos, who is now writing a young adult novel in verse. “I hope that it helps, you know, other younger folks to feel seen, to have permission to write and have a voice and be bold, and maybe a little weird.”

Theo Swank, ballet dancer

Theo Swank’s mother thought she was enrolling her preschool son in an arts and crafts summer camp that might include some dance. When he came home, she learned it was a dance camp, and Theo wanted dancing shoes.

Summer camp at Bluegrass Youth Ballet turned into more than a dozen years of classes, performances, and growth into a dance life, including training at the School for Creative and Performing Arts, that now has Swank finishing his first year at the School of the American Ballet , the school associated with the New York City Ballet and based at Lincoln Center.

“I wanted to put in like 110% every day, and the teachers there recognized that,” Swank said recently. Swank returned to Lexington to perform in BYB’s 20th Anniversary program at the Lexington Opera House. “It was a nurturing and very positive environment for me, and the teachers there were able to help me pursue my dream.”

BYB was an environment that was able to serve both an aspiring professional like Swank and kids who just wanted to dance as an extracurricular activity for fun. It also helped keep Swank grounded as he went away to summer intensives where he met students his age who were already burning out on dance.

Now that he is in a place where dance is the focus of his day, Swank gets to enjoy being able to concentrate on his craft while also maintaining that grounding. He indulges in a few activities including taking a class at Fordham this semester, painting miniatures, and trying to enjoy the experience of living in New York.

After a summer program with Miami City Ballet, Swank will be back at the School of the American Ballet for another year, and after that, who knows. Top students at the School often end up in New York City Ballet, and if that doesn’t happen, Swank likens being from the school in the dance world to having a degree from Harvard.

“You’re still set up really well to succeed,” Swank said. “If this doesn’t work out, then I think I’d like to try to go somewhere in Europe. There’s some really great ballet companies over there, and they really have a different appreciation for the art form.”

But for Swank, there will always be a draw home, to the place where his love for dance grew and was nurtured. When he comes home, Swank says he loves to enjoy green spaces and indulge in a Kentucky favorite: the Hot Brown. Doesn’t sound like part of a ballet dancer’s diet, but maybe that’s part of being grounded.