Kaitlyn Cannon | 10-Year-Old Artist

Dana talks to 10-year-old artist Kaitlyn. She's won awards from the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo. Kaitlyn talks about her process and shows us her art.

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Episode Transcript

(00:00):
So she doesn't know if she wantsto be a cowgirl or an artist who
paints horses. This young lady,I thought she was thirteen, she's ten.
What a phenom, and she's allover the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo.
She is my guest. I hadher mom previously. Her dad's a
bear back riding champion. Wait untilyou hear the story of this young lady

(00:20):
on my podcast. And thank youMattress Mack for always sponsoring the Dana Tyson
podcast. I wanted to have Caitlinon and dad Clint, who is the
bare back rider extraordinaire, and hisdaughter who is an artist extraordinaire at the
Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo. Itis so good to see you guys.
We talked to mom on another podcastand we just thought it'd be so cool

(00:44):
if you showed us your artwork andthen kind of told us how you think
of doing these things. Yeah,yeah, I'm glad you got her own
here. You know, Lindsay wassuper, super nervous the other day and
she was pumped to do it andshe loved doing that, and we needed
to get Caitlin in there to showher and let her talk to you,
because she's a good character. She'sfine, little mini me and make me

(01:08):
proud, her mama proud. SoI'll let her go. She has a
couple of pieces of art here,but not the one that's going to Houston.
Okay, the Houston Rodeo still hasit. So all right, let's
see what you've got, sweetheart,and then walk us through the process.
Okay. So first of all,you're in fourth grade, right, fifth
fifth grade? Okay? And what'syour teacher's name, miss Hokniche? All

(01:30):
right, and do you have aspecial art teacher or do you do this
on the side. I do mostof it on the side because dad's your
art teacher. Is dad your artteacher? Yeah? She comes in.
What little knowledge I have, Idid it all through high school and yeah,

(01:51):
and YouTube is as huge these days. I used to have to watch
the guy on Channel eight with thebig throw with the fro yes exactly.
Well, good, honey, We'lllet's see what you have. Okay.
So this year I made this piecefor Waller County Rodeo. I one fourth.
I think, poor fah beautiful.I see that you love the skies,

(02:19):
the Texas skies or it seemed tobe a big part of your your
work. And of course you've gotthe animals, right, so when you
go into this project, what areyou thinking about? Mostly horses? Okay,
I like that. I like that. What else do you have with

(02:40):
like artwork? Yeah? Yeah,you have another one there? Oh look
at that. That's beautiful. Okay, now this one, there's a lot
going on here. You have totalk to me about the eye, the
handprint and then it looks like beadson the horse's mane. Yeah, so
yes, so so Indians they painttheir horses and I just thought it was

(03:06):
really cool because there's a little handprintdown there, yeah, and some feathers
in his mane. And then thesethese symbols they represent different things. So
like some of them represent like war, that like success in war or stuff
like that. Right right, there'sa lot of different meanings to it.

(03:28):
But let's talk about the eye ofthe horse. It kind of looks like
a sunny sunshine. I mean,I don't know. Yeah, she gets
her and she gets his artwork.She's got a she's big in the in
the horses. And you know,we've spent rodeo and I've become buds with
a lot of guys that are Native, and especially the Mescalera Apaches, and

(03:51):
we've gone out there to feast andshe's got the dance and ceremonies, and
so she's always drawn towards that westernend Native life and just being a cowboy
Native Indian and it's that's where sheevery time I look around, she's always
drawn something Western driven. So Ilove it. And Clint, what about

(04:13):
you? Is this where your tendencywas? Because I know since she's been
a little girl, you guys havebeen drawing together. So where is this
your influence or is this something thatshe just kind of did on her own?
You know? It all came aboutshe found an old notebook. My
mom brought over a box of oldcrud and she and it had one of
my old art books from high schoolin it, just a sketchbook. And

(04:39):
she started flipping through, going youdrew this, and I'm like yeah,
and it was there was one ofthem of a like wrapped an American flag
with like sunset behind it. Yeah. And I was drawing a lot of
Native art because I was just drawnto horses and the western lifestyle as a
kid. Yeah, and she yeah, she lost my book. It was

(05:02):
gone for thirty years and then shefound it and now she lost it again,
but it mpired, I guess.So the thing that I want our
listeners or our viewers to know isthat, So, Clint, I met
Clint your dad like ten years agoat the rodeo, and you were a
bare back riding champion. And sothen I'm watching a video of you two

(05:26):
and I'm thinking they're like and tenyears later, Clint's daughter is also a
rodeo champion, but in the areaof art. So how cool is that
that you were able to accomplish that, you know, before you're even out
of middle school. I thought itwas cool as heck, because I'm telling

(05:46):
you, when I was little,every year I wanted to make it to
the Houston Rodeo on the art showbecause my dad rodeoed and I would draw
pictures of bucking horses and just drawwhat I could draw. And I never
made it out of my out ofmy school. And then this little girl
comes around and just whoops my butt. Well, third grade wasn't the best

(06:08):
year. I was like third gradeit was the new It was new to
all of us. We didn't knowit was like a star test. We
didn't know how to do it,so we just winged it and it wasn't
that good. And I didn't makeit that year, but made it a
lot further and fourth grade because ittook it a lot more serious, had
a two time champ of the district. Can't go wrong, We're there,

(06:30):
and the success just to do thatas a out of Waller's a big district.
When I was a little, Wallerwas a little tiny country town with
you know, way smaller. Wehad I think one elementary school, two
elementary schools. Maybe now there's liketen elementary schools, and so she's making

(06:51):
it out of that. I couldn'teven make it out of one elementary school.
It's amazing. And well there's maybethere's a little input from my too,
well I think I get. Imean, I'm pretty good cooked and
like some of our some of likethe colors and stuff, and like the

(07:15):
thoughts of what I'm gonna draw comefrom mom. But definitely the drawing still
comes. I'll tell you what Mom'sside. She tells you the truth.
Dad. I'm always like, ohthat's beautiful, and it might be terrible,
and Mom will be like I thinkyou need to work on that one.
Both sides a good balance, rightit is. It's all about the
balance. And I don't know ifLindsay's an artist or not. I don't

(07:40):
you know. She she's dang surecan do more on the computer and stuff
she can on the computer because weone time we downloaded this app it was
called pro Create because it's like adigital art app, and we bought all
this stuff because we made stickers.It was like two or three years ago,
and she made some pretty good stickers. But that was like with all

(08:01):
the tools that like if you messedup, you could just press redoing then
it could fix it for you.You know all that. So yeah,
yeah, you've got the technical artistand then you've got the real artist that
is just a man. And you'reso well spoken, and I just have
to say, is this your dream? Now? I know you've done a

(08:22):
picture for the Rodeo this year,which I think your mom said it was
you're on a horse, but youand maybe a bucking horse, I don't
know, but you can see ablondetail, so you know it's a girl.
And so what do you want todo? Do you want to do
art or do you want to followthe physical side of the rodeo. It's

(08:45):
really hard because art it's fun,but it also takes a lot of time.
And I'm very critical of my art, so like, if it doesn't
turn out like how I pictured it, too, I just keep trying to
redo it and redo it and redoit. It ends up with a lot
of stuff and then so but it'salso so much fun to ride horses.

(09:11):
She loves she's good at it.I was tell you also what she has
a goal and I didn't bring thisto her or anything. She did it
all on her own. She's gonnatake most of her artwork that she's done.
I'll let her explain it. I'mgonna sell these artworks, and I
have a lot more, but I'mgonna sell them, and then I'm gonna

(09:33):
use that money and give it toa like what it's a veteran group foundation
kind of called Heroes and Horses whereyeah, it's it's They're based out of
Montana, was formed by UH startedby some ex Navy seals, and they

(09:54):
take people up and combat veterans andtake them up in the mountain and teaching
horsemanship and then get them jobs outin the ranching world. And kind of
reconnect them because you know, horsesbring your soul out in you, you
know, they really do, andthey do. Oh that's her goal with
this stuff, Caitlin. I haveto tell you my mom is eighty seven

(10:18):
years old and once a week Ibring her to ride a very special horse
named Carlos, who is so gentle, and she's kind of suffering with memory
loss, but she never forgets thehorse and the experience for a whole hour.
And I know that you guys havekind of a horse riding experience out
there at Waller, And I haveto ask you, do you help,

(10:41):
like if there are kids there,do you kind of calm them down?
Is they're getting on this big animal, right? Yeah. So we do
a lot of summer camps in thewinter, spring break and you know,
summer, all those things. Andhe'll take a group and I'll take a
group. You know, he trustesme taking groups. I do. She

(11:01):
don't just calm kids down. Shecomes full grown adults down. And I
let her take out whole groups andthey'll look at me if I've done is
like seven or eight kids, Yeah, one by herself, and she she
handles it. And the kids arehard. You have to lead them.
Yeah, she's very calm and tellsthem what to do and if something does

(11:24):
happen, she keeps everybody calm andwhat I've taught her and she I fully
trust her out there on it andshe knows her horse is really good.
Now are you twelve or thirteen?I'm actually ten? Oh you're ten?
So are you homeschooled? No,ma'am public school? Okay, So I
have to ask you, and Iknow this is a big question for a

(11:46):
ten year old, but I thoughtyou were thirteen. So what gets you
motivated? Like? What how doyou get yourself going every day? You
could just stay home and watch cartoonsafter a long day at school, but
you seemed to be a very motivatedyoung lady. What is it. Well,

(12:07):
most of the time, some ofmy siblings, you know, animals
like my bloodhound Cali. I'll gooutside and play with her, or some
she says, sweet, we havetoys like trampling and the horses and coconut.
Our baby donkey, he if youshow him like a goldfish or something
that is food, he will chaseyou and tell you give it to him.

(12:31):
Or if you pet him for asecond and then run away, he'll
chase you and then make you givehim more pets. Actually, I'm president
of student Council and my video forthe people to vote for me was Coconut.
He follow behind me and it said, and I ran up to the

(12:54):
camera and I said, it mightlook like I'm running away from a baby
donkey, but I'm actually running forpresident of student council. So it was
pretty it was pretty handy. Ithink that just life is fun for you.
That's what I think. She getsto experience a lot. We're always
doing some fun. The other night, I just got a new uh big

(13:18):
Walton in for uh pack trips thatI do with people on horseback, and
we just threw it out out inthe yard and camped out. And we
try to camp out all the time. That these kids are used to camping
and doing their thing. You justhave fun. You've got animals that you
need to take care of. Youprobably learned a lot from them. And

(13:39):
we've got to go out pretty earlyin the morning and set out some Hey,
all right, Like like what timeis early for you guys? Early
for us, it's probably like fourfive, Yeah, it is. If
we got an eight o'clock ride,we have to get up at like for

(14:01):
ten four thirty because we got tocatch twenty horses on three hundred and fifty
acres that are just roaming through thewoods. Yeah. Man, I mean
I feel like I'm watching an episodeof Yellowstone right here. Sometimes we feel
like we're in it. That isamazing. Well, I'm so glad I
got to talk to you. Now, tell me about the picture that won

(14:24):
the painting that won this year atthe rodeo. Like the rodeo hasn't even
started yet, but I guess theartwork's already decided on. Yeah, how
does that work? So I thinkwhat they do is this our school.
So it's like ten schools they pick. I think it's top thirty, right,

(14:46):
and then top but then top ten. They send ten of them to
the high school. Once they're atthe high school. Then the high school
like there's like one hundred pieces ofpaper there, so they have to decide
on ten and then they send itto Rodio Houston, and Rodier Houston decides

(15:09):
on one for the district and thenwell actually they decide on two, but
one's gold medal, which is likethe best one, and then there's best
of Show, which is like thesecond best one like the runner up behind
the gold medal. They don't.I don't think they get displayed there or

(15:30):
wait, I don't know. Idon't know how that work. How many
gold medals have you had? Two? That's incredible? You medals up from
softball and not. Yeah, andtheir goal is to I think it's to
get to where you get to Houstonand you go to auction and then that

(15:50):
goes to scholarship money. So Idon't I don't know how they if it
will go to auction or I don'tknow how they pick that or do that,
but knock on wood, they do, that'd be nice. But if
not, if we go on theHeroes and Horses auction exactly, I love
that. Now do you have?And I know you're only ten, so
I'm not going to push it,but just wondering if maybe Dad's set up

(16:11):
on Instagram where we could follow yourart or or no, not yet,
no a cowboy country life one.And yeah, she does a lot of
posts for me on my she sheruns a lot of my social media for
me, and when we're out atuh camp for taking horses out and stuff,
she's always taking pictures and doing littlevideos and stuff. Well, that's

(16:33):
excellent. We'll make sure we getthat side up so people can follow you
and come out for a horse ridingexperience. Maybe you can bring us around.
It would be so fun. Ilike Marda request me. Okay,
yeah, she'll if you request me, he'll bring me out. So it's

(16:55):
excellent. She's not shy at all, is she? Clint? Oh no,
no, that can talk to awall. I love it and that
smile that listen, Honey, I'mso glad I got to talk with you.
The best of luck. What advicewould you give to someone who either
wants to be riding horses or bean artist who paints horses? What would

(17:17):
you say to them? Do itboth? Do it? But that's what
I'm thinking, do it all.Well, you're such a fine young girl.
What's your favorite subject in school?Science? My science teacher is really
nice. I mean, I loveall of my teachers, but science is
the funnest because you get to doexperiments and all that stuff. Yeah,

(17:38):
I love it. I love yourenthusiasm for life. You guys have so
much fun. Clint, you lookexactly the same and when I met you
ten years ago, and I knowyou're retired now, from the bareback riding.
But you're now hearing experience, andwhat's much calmer experiences? Oh it
is, you know, just notgetting beat up every day feels good.

(18:00):
I know he still does it,hosts rodeo schools. Yeah, so we
still do a rodeo school every yearfor bucking horse hunting. Now is that
at your Cowboy Country or we doit at either the Waller County Fairgrounds or
at the Washington County Fairgrounds. Wouldyou give us the information? Because I
always said, and I think Itold your wife this. She was fascinated

(18:22):
that my kids played ice hockey inCanada because she's from Canada, and I
was like, man, if Ihad known about fucking broncos, I would
have put my kids in the rodeo. Yeah. No, I tell the
hockey players would be good at it. Yeah, I believe tough for that.
That's right, that's right. Especiallywell, honey, we'll be watching

(18:47):
you progress. Maybe in high schoolyou're going to be like the artist at
the rodeo. Who knows, maybeyou'll be riding horses at the rodeo.
We will be watching you. AndI'm so glad you had some time to
talk with me today I'm glad Ihad time to talk with you today,
the best time and we love yourfamily. Thank you so much for sharing

(19:08):
your little rodeo experience with all ofus here. It's Sonny Oh. We
love it and thank you for everything. Thanks guys,