LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- The selected artist for the Woodford Reserve Kentucky Derby commemorative label is the same artist as Churchill Downs selected artist for the first time in more than 25 years.
The honor is bestowed to Lexington-based artist Wylie Caudill. He became a full-time artist in 2019, with a focus on commissioned murals. In 2021, a TikTok video he posted changed his career.
In the viral video you can see him painting his apartment wall and the audio is the famous movie quote from The Devil Wears Prada: "that sweater is not just blue, it's not turquoise, it's not lapis, it's actually cerulean."
Fittingly, he paints cerulean roses all across the wall and hangs a neon sign that says cerulean. The video has more than six million views.
"Waking up and seeing the amount of views that video had was really validating because that was one of the first murals I designed completely myself," Caudill said.
The roses originated in a mural he did for Kentucky Derby 146 winner Authentic in Cynthiana, his hometown.
Kentucky native Wylie Caudill is the official artist for Kentucky Derby 150, creating the art for the 2024 race, as well as the art for Woodford Reserve's commemorative Kentucky Derby bottle, which was unveiled Tuesday, March 5, 2024, at Churchill Downs. (Photo courtesy of Woodford Reserve/Brown Forman Corporation)
The cerulean color rose was the real winner though and became a signature for Caudill. He's since painted hundreds of thousands of roses. A life-sized horse he painted with the roses for a charity auction sold for $21,000.
Meanwhile, his TikTok account continued to gain traction.
"I think that social media is my second form of art," Caudill said.
Caudill's skill for videos on social media doesn't come as a surprise to those who know him because he was a film major in college at Eastern Kentucky University.
"It's sort of a collaboration with social media with what I paint, and I just think it makes it more fun and it's also the best way for people to see your artwork," he said.
Caudill now has more than a quarter of a million followers.
And somewhere along the way, a Woodford Reserve employee saw his art on TikTok too and threw Caudill's name in as Woodford executives contemplated prospective Derby 150 artists.
"I got a very vague email January of last year that was from Woodford Reserve asking me if I'd be interested in doing artwork related to the 150th Kentucky Derby," Caudill said. "It just blew me away they were even thinking of me."
After some bigger talks about what the job would entail, Caudill was hired. Churchill Downs signed on too.
First up, the Derby needed its official poster. Caudill revealed the design and signed posters for fans in September 2023.
It features the Kentucky Derby Trophy with the Twin Spires in the background, surrounded by a blanket of roses.
"I've been known for florals and the derby is known for its red roses. So I'm like, what's the best collaboration between the Derby and Wiley Caudill and it's red roses," he said.
Like a sister art piece, a similar rose covered label was released in March 2024 for the Woodford Reserve Kentucky Derby 150 Commemorative bottle.
It features a red rose covered racehorse and jockey.
"I didn't want to do your basic horse, like the horse should be covered in these roses. It should just be consumed by my roses," Caudill said. "I just thought that it'd be more interesting and I don't know delicious to look at."
There's several rose colors featured too in each piece of Caudill's Derby art.
He said he used pink and white roses because they were used in the very beginning for the winning Derby horse before it switched to the iconic red. Gold represents the gold Derby 150 trophy. There's also a mint green, that could represent Mint Juleps, or as Caudill envisioned it, spring time. But he couldn't do a mix of roses without featuring some in the color cerulean.
"They let me represent myself as an artist. So to see blue roses in here, it's just like, so cool of them to let me paint this thing that I'm known for and add that into, you know, the greatest two minutes in sports," Caudill said.
In the final days leading up to the race, Churchill Downs also asked him to create a rose covered mural in an exclusive area of the new Paddock. Guests at the track will also see a temporary mural of his Woodford Reserve label art.
"To think that it lives in history like that, it's just, I can't put it into words," Caudill said.
To purchase merch including, T-shirts, coffee mugs and official posters you can go to the Churchill Downs store or its website. Caudill also features merch for purchase on his website.
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