Craig
Kodera
Aviation is this artist’s living. Painting is a
joy and a choice; not his career. Craig Kodera career is as
an airline pilot, so each of his paintings reflect an intimate
knowledge of how it feels to fly and what it looks like out
the cockpit. "I paint what I see," he says,"and
my office window is at 35,000 feet."
An appreciation of aviation came easy, since Kodera was raised
in what he terms an "aviation family," which included
an uncle who flew with the famous Doolittle Raiders during
World War II. At an age when most teens were trying to ace
the driver’s test, Kodera had earned his private pilot’s
license. A love of painting also came early. Kodera started
seriously studying it at fourteen.
He graduated from UCLA with a degree in mass communications
and spent a year as a commercial artist before joining the
Air Force Reserve, where he was assigned to the Air Rescue
Service and then the Strategic Air Command. There his knowledge
of air war history grew while he logged literally thousands
of hours flying.
Eventually Kodera left the service and joined American Airlines.
When he isn’t flying, he’s usually painting. His
artwork is part of the Smithsonian Institution’s National
Air and Space Museum permanent collection and hangs in many
museums. He is also the charter vice president of the American
Society of Aviation Artists, a member of the Air Force Art
Program and serves with the Los Angeles Society of Illustrators.
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