Cover artist Dalton Kaplan of Pawtucket always had the art bug.
“When I was a kid, I watched way too many cartoons,” the illustrator and graphic designer laughs. While sitting in front of the TV he would always draw, sometimes cartoonish characters, sometimes scenes. And he really got bitten by the bug at Mount Blue High School in Farmington, ME.
“I had an awesome art teacher, Roger Bisaillon, and I took every class that I could with him,” he recalls. “It was then that I decided I was just going to do this, make art, for the rest of my life.”
After graduating high school, he attended New Hampshire Institute of Art in Manchester, from which he earned his BFA in Illustration in 2016. NHIA was acquired by New England College in 2018, which closed the Manchester campus in 2023 and moved the arts and design programs to the main campus at Henniker, NH.
With his diploma in hand, Kaplan was one of a group of ten graduates who moved down to Providence. Skateboard artist Jeff Wheeler, who created the cover of Motif’s cannabis issue last year, was another member of that group. Kaplan officiated at Wheeler’s wedding in New Hampshire last August.
“I’ve got to give a shout-out to Jeff for recommending me to Motif to do the cover,” Kaplan adds.
That’s one of the best things about being part of the artistic community in the Ocean State. “We’re super tight-knit,” he says, pointing out that everyone is always willing to help each other.
Kaplan joined the Pawtucket Arts Collaborative about a year and a half ago. He aims to create a piece of art at least once a week.
“I’m mainly a digital artist now, though I do collages,” he says. The artist describes his collages as abstracts. He assembles them from stuff he finds on the street, along with bits of wallpaper, old books, and other interesting items he comes across, then mixes in some paint. “I add layers of paper and wood to the artwork,” he explains.
Kaplan is a graphic designer at ClassSick Custom, a screen printing company in Pawtucket, which he joined in 2017. Owner Jeff Lapierre is an artist himself, and ClassSick has printed for major clients such as They Might Be Giants and Prince’s estate, as well as local businesses, restaurants, and fire stations.
“It’s a fulfilling place to work because there’s always something new coming through the door, and I enjoy working with clients to bring their ideas to life,” he says. The artist also freelances, and is available for commissions.
For the cover, Kaplan went with an Art Nouveau style.
He used elements of symbology and mythology that were in keeping with this issue’s theme of health and wellness. The artist constructed a goddess figure, and brought into the design the snake staff medical symbol called the Rod of Asclepius, who was the Greek god of medicine and healing. He also referenced the Fountain of Youth.
“In my art, I like to get more into the meaning of what the symbols I’m working with stand for,” Kaplan says. “Let’s say you dream that you’re walking through the desert, and you find a rose, and there’s an animal there. What’s the deeper meaning of all this?”
It’s a fascinating exploration for Kaplan as he creates his art.
Just as they figure in a deck of Tarot cards, knights figure in a lot of Kaplan’s art. He attributes this to his love of fantasy films from the 1980s like The Dark Crystal and Excalibur. He also cites Michael Moorcock’s elf knight Elric of Melniboné.
“I just did a piece this week on Sir Gawain and the Green Knight,” he adds, referring to the 14th century poem by an anonymous author known as the Gawain Poet.
For Kaplan, art and magic are really intertwined, and the Tarot deck offers “super-dense consolidations of pictural meaning.” He hopes his artwork gets people more curious about symbolism. “There’s such a rich tapestry of symbols and art,” he observes.
Kaplan’s a natural pick for this issue’s cover because he leads a healthy life. He loves to meditate and do yoga, hikes almost every weekend in Lincoln Woods State Park, and got into weightlifting two years ago.
He also goes mushroom foraging. So far, he’s identified a hundred species of them, among the thousands of different types of shrooms. Kaplan knows which are edible and which are poisonous, thanks to a seminar at the Pawtucket Public Library by the nonprofit Mushroom Hunting Foundation, which was founded by Ryan and Emily Bouchard of Wakefield, RI.
“It’s a consuming hobby,” he says.
Kaplan mostly reads nonfiction, focusing on occultism and religions. One of his favorite authors is John Michael Greer, a Druid. “He’s a great writer to get into,” he recommends.
The artist enjoys listening to indie rock and folk, and frequents the News Cafe for its punk shows. Kaplan used to play the drums, played the ukulele for a while, and has now taken up the banjo.
“People should be more curious about the world they live in,” he concludes. “And I hope my art makes them curious.”
–John Picinich
Kaplan’s portfolio can be viewed at his website daltonkaplan.com and on Instagram @occultforces.