Studio Space: Matteo Caloiaro and Brooke Olivares

Walking toward married artist couple Matteo Caloiaro and Brooke Olivares’ art studio is  akin to falling through Alice’s rabbit hole or stepping into Narnia. Located in the already visually fantastic neighborhood of Burns Court, the entrance to the studio is shrouded in a halo of ivy and vegetation. A few knocks later, one enters the crisp and colorful confines of the couple's artistic inner sanctum.

But before the two met, married and found the space, both Caloiaro and Olivares majored in illustration at the Ringling College of Art and Design. Though the two both graduated nearly at the same time (Olivares in 2006 and Caloiaro in 2007), they didn't interact much on Ringling’s small campus.

“We met very briefly at school and that was it,” says Olivares. “We didn’t have any classes together. We met the week I was graduating and we kind of just kept in touch ever since via email and just talking about art.”

The year after she graduated, Olivares went back to her hometown of San Diego. She organized a charity art show through her church, and Caloirao was the only one of her Ringling artist who ventured out to California to participate. After the show, the two started dating and have been together ever since.

The two have expanded their craft away from traditional pencil, pen and paper. The illustration major is an expansive field of study, encompassing children’s books, graphic novels, editorial illustration and visual development.

Yet it was the artists of the “Golden Age of Illustration,” from the 1880s to the end of World War I, that inspire the couple’s current craft. Illustration artists who incorporated paint and canvas into their drawings such as Dean Cornwell, N. C. Wyeth and Harvey Dunn inspire the couple’s current work and teaching abilities.

Caloiaro and Olivares returned in 2010 to Sarasota, after gaining teaching jobs as illustration instructors at their alma mater.

As employees of the college, the artists have access to Ringling’s vast library of art books to find inspiration.

“That’s something we try to instill in our students as well, to constantly be looking at other work,” says Caloiaro. “When you get in a rut, the different colors you use or the way you apply paint, if you’re looking at other artists’ work it challenges your own abilities and own way of perceiving things."