Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Christian Ward. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Alright, Christian thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. When did you first know you wanted to pursue a creative/artistic path professionally?

I knew I wanted to pursue an artistic path several times in my life. The time that sticks out to me most is when I was eighteen. I had just graduated high school and my father said he would send me on a trip. I chose to visit my brother Zac in Vermont where he was in graduate’s school at Bennington Art college. MY brother is a sculptor mostly but also made prints and drew among other things. On this trip to visit my brother in Vermont , I got to hang out with him and his friends in their studios, watch them make things and get to help my brother on some projects. It seemed like a really fulfilling pursuit to be studying art and intensely making art in this environment. I think from there I picked up on the idea that artists get their MFA and just dedicate their life to making art and executing fun ideas.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I’d like people to know that I live and work in Long Beach. I am an adjunct professor teaching printmaking at two different community colleges. I am first an artist and printmaker, and next I am a teacher. I am married to another artist and printmaker who also teaches art for a living. I have a young daughter.

I was inspired to become an artist by my older half brother Zac Ward who lives and works in Vermont and New York. Growing up in Orange County, I found it hard to see a creative life. Getting together with my brother Zac sporadically throughout my life, I got what I needed to see there was such thing as being an artist. My brother Zac introduced me to printmaking. Later I found printmaking at Lane Community College in Eugene, Oregon. This was a huge step for me as I had found a community to belong to. I was a printmaker from then on.

From Lane Community College I transferred to the University of Oregon. I continued my printmaking, dabbled in sculpture classes and finished a Spanish minor. While working on my BA at the U of O, I applied to grad school. I got into Cal. State Long Beach in 2009. At Cal. State Long Beach, I sought out teaching. After interning several times, I got the opportunity to be teacher of record in drawing classes and printmaking classes while in grad school. From there I never stopped teaching.

The dream as a printmaker for me is to run a space where the community (myself included) can access the specific tools to make prints, host community printmaking classes, collaborate with artists in making prints and host shows and events. This space has slowly come to life in several different forms since 2015. We called this space The Collective Print Studio, or CPS. Its first version was at the Long Beach Art Exchange as an artist residence on 3rd street, We hit all our goals for a printmaking space. We held shows, classes, collaborated with guest artists and had equipment and access for its members to ply their trade. Our next space was on 14th street, and now CPS is in a ten foot by ten foot container studio in our driveway where we live on Cambodia town.

As far as my own concepts and practice, I find them to be very personal at this stage in my life. They’re almost private, I use my practice to center myself. It’s a way to stay in the present. I’m inspired by moments of “non-work.” I find the idea of productivity repulsive as far as my personal art is concerned right now. I mostly play and experiment, and I try to be unconcerned about final products. I understand this is a faze for now. My imagery tends to be of everyday things I “encounter” on walks. I think there is something special in things that are of seemingly no value. Yet these unimportant things give me pause and slow me down. I have to be outside to access that creative part of me. I have to step away from my roles in society. When I have to return to my duties, I try to synthesis that feeling of being suspended out of my roles. The end products are a small sample of how I felt while away.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

The most rewarding thing for me as an artist is to be able to communicate and to teach others to communicate.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

My goal and mission in this creative journey is to find a new way of seeing the world.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @csalcedoward