Kristy Caldwell is an illustrator in New York City. She develops narrative projects that engage imagination in relation to perception and experience, drawing from memory, history, and visual culture. She also uses active imagination as a method of visual research for narrative world-building. She is especially interested in imagination’s role in cultivating personal agency.
She has illustrated more than a dozen children’s books, including Flowers for Sarajevo, a 2017 New York Public Library Best Book for Kids, and co-founded experimental literary journal Carrier Pigeon: Illustrated Fiction and Fine Art.
Kristy’s illustrations have been recognized by American Illustration and Communication Arts. In 2025 she became the first visual artist to receive a William H. Helfand Fellowship at the Grolier Club Library. She has taught at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, Pratt Institute, and the School of Visual Arts, and is currently Assistant Professor of Illustration at Queens College, CUNY.
kc@kristycaldwell.com
@kristy.caldwell
WRITING ON ART
- The Blind Man in the Studio: A Visit with Richard Pettibone, Castelli Gallery
SELECT INTERVIEWS ABOUT ILLUSTRATION PROCESS
- ‘Trim Sets Sail’ and ‘Trim Helps Out’ — Historical Fiction about a Ship’s Cat, Conversations, Kansas Public Radio
- Thanks to Frances Perkins: An Interview with Kristy Caldwell, Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast
- From the Sketchbook: Kristy Caldwell / Children’s Book Council
- Let’s Talk Illustrators #100, Let’s Talk Picture Books