BIOGRAPHY
Chris Arnold is a Chicago based contemporary artist and illustrator. Currently, his work is focused on environmental expressionism with notable collections featuring animals, botanicals and landscapes. This includes recent projects with the Ron Finley Project, US National Park Service and the Department of the Interior as an Artist-in-Residence. He has earned a B.F.A. in Studio Art from the University of Missouri, Columbia, and an M.F.A. in Illustration from the Savannah College of Art and Design. Additionally, he is a tenured member of the Art and Design Department at Columbia College Chicago as an Associate Professor of Illustration. Chris has also served the academic community in Illinois teaching at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC). Over the last two decades of Arnold’s professional art and illustration career, he has had work featured in more than a dozen one-man exhibitions, included in over fifty curated group shows worldwide and has been part of countless award-winning illustration and design campaigns.
ARTIST STATEMENT
I have always been fascinated with art and illustration as forms of visual communication. I remember as a little boy my father would take me to the local barbershop for a haircut each month. I was very afraid of the barber, so to distract me, my dad would let me pick out a comic book beforehand to read. I was too young to understand the words, but the images took me from one page to the next, letting my imagination run wild. Soon I was fighting alongside my favorite superheroes instead of fearing for my life in that scary chair next to a man with razor-sharp scissors.
I believe this to be my first memory and it was little adventures such as this that would eventually put a brush in my hand and bring my ideas to life. Now, after nearly four decades since I sat in that scary barber’s chair, I am not only a working artist, but still love letting my imagination run wild and using my creativity to communicate visually.
As an artist, my intention is to capture various moments in their natural form that reflect conceptual consideration. Through the combination of different styles and sequences, I hope to begin a dialogue with variety of audiences using environmental expressionism. The work is most often first seen as big, colorful and bold. The art driven by linework that is reflective of how inkers layout comic book pages. With the use of nature’s beauty, the imagery is familiar and inviting as it welcomes the viewer into the composition.
Upon further inspection of this illustrative work, I am using various techniques both seen and unseen to deepen the narrative of the artwork through the stories it contains. These are “Easter Eggs” that are often words, symbols, codes, cyphers and clues waiting to be discovered. My intent is not to confuse the viewer but rather intrigue them with ideas in the work that are not always what they seem when seen for the first time.
Most of the creative artwork I produce today is for galleries, publishers, agencies, murals, individual clients and private collections. Traditional materials are almost always a prominent feature in my art and are combined with a range of processes, techniques, concepts and philosophies. All of these activities, aligned with my history and values, have allowed me to grow as a more relevant professional visual communicator and educator. I am also happy to report I still love reading comics and have lost my fear of the barber’s chair.