Growing up on a farm in Central California, Jerry Calote developed a love and respect for nature as a youth. At the age of eighteen he moved to Los Angeles and attended the University of California on a scholarship and found a mentor in the likes of the Animation professor of UCLA, Dan McLaughlin Jr. He was accepted in the film school and graduated in 1976, having focused his academic time in the Animation Workshop. The next 10 years were spent freelancing between work in motion picture and graphic design. Among some of his clients were Chuck Blore /Don Richman commercial house in Hollywood and Oracle Films of Santa Monica, California. He briefly wrote and drew a comic strip titled, "Bubbles" that was published in the LA Funnies and LA Weekly. Switzerland is actually where Jerry Calote grew as an artist and realized more of his creative potential. In 1985 a Swiss businessman invited Jerry to Interlaken for the purpose of creating murals. He moved to Europe and changed the name of his business to Atelier Calote and retains this designation till today. Since 1986 he has concentrated on fine art painting and mural production. He produces art for clients in Switzerland, Saint Tropez, France, and the Netherlands. His mural work is evenly divided between restaurant interiors, hotels, and numerous residences which include several prestigious villas in the Alps and Riviera. During his time in Europe, his fine art took a surrealistic direction and he produced several exhibitions of his paintings in Switzerland and Germany.  It would be impossible to spend more than a day in Interlaken and not happen to view some of his public art. The artist was happy to find a second home there and pleased to find a foreign audience for his work.

In 1998 he decided to seek new inspirations back in his home state of California and chose San Diego as his base. Most recently, he has been contracted by the Cheesecake Factory Restaurants to work on their mural team and is proud of designing and producing the interior of the Saint Tropez Bistro in Encinitas, and downtown San Diego.  Jerry Calote's Gallery of Art (Galerie Saint-Tropez) is located at 926 Broadway Circle, San Diego, CA. Still intent to keep an international presence, Jerry travels to Europe annually for art commissions and personal work.  The artist has never given up the love and interest for film that he cultivated back at UCLA, and has managed to produce several short videos since living in Switzerland on the subject of contemporary art in Europe.