Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Chris Sellers. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Chris, appreciate you joining us today. Earning a full time living from one’s creative career can be incredibly difficult. Have you been able to do so and if so, can you share some of the key parts of your journey and any important advice or lessons that might help creatives who haven’t been able to yet?
I have found the most success in being a full-time artist through being multidisciplinary. As a creative, it is important to focus on a thing you’re passionate about, but by spending time towards versatility you can expand in extra opportunities. My story comes from a formal education in drawing and painting and I have a degree in painting, but I also own a small screen printing business from no formal training. Both practices operate in my studio and often intertwine, such as sewing surfaces for paintings or starting a screen printing design with pencil and paper.
I grew up learning how to draw and paint, but I got into printing during my early twenties because I wanted to design t-shirts. It was something I enjoyed and also saw as a lucrative source of income. I worked with a few companies and even managed to learn some things on my own. Over time I acquired knowledge of screens, embroidery files, etc through youtube which helped me build other forms of revenue, but its foundation is deeply rooted in my experience of fine art. Most importantly I have found that the exposure to both of these worlds feeds into one another. I often have clients contacting me for shirts and when they arrive at the studio we get into a conversation about my paintings. I’ve printed shirts for galleries, other artists, and people who I do murals for. Ultimately the simultaneous practices have pushed me further than I had expected, and any advice I would give to a creative branching out into a full-time living is to push into new territory with what you know. I always advise people, if you can’t do it then you should learn how!
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
As an artist, I primarily identify myself as a painter. I’ve exhibited around Tampa Bay, and have had a couple of opportunities to show in NYC and LA. As an interest, it comes before anything else. I enjoy expressing ideas, exhibiting in shows, and creating scenarios to discuss my work. But as much as I love painting, the opportunities can be inconsistent. Therefore I own a printmaking company that works with small to mid-volume businesses. My goal in operating the company is to have a reoccurring stream of income through the utilization other my other skills. Plus, owning a business allows me to make time for my paintings, and to make work that is less influenced by the art market. Although both practices function in the same studio, I try to keep them separate. It’s a personal preference of separating fine and commercial art, even though I’m proud of both.
My work encompasses painterly experimentation rooted in artistic expression, focusing on themes of existentialism. Specifically, these ideas are expressed as pain and suffering alongside love and desire. As a recovering alcoholic, I want to communicate experiences from depression, indulgence, and addictive behaviors. In the beginning, painting these experiences was a healing process. I was used to censoring myself and not allowing myself to express ideas that seem taboo. Not only did I discover something exhilarating, it allowed me to push sobriety in a new way. I describe the process as reliving an experience, but turning it into something beautiful. I refocus experiences and memories on “project research”. I want to use that past negativity as inspiration for my work and nowadays my work has become the reason for sobriety. The challenge for me is to make work that lives for the viewer’s experience by maintaining open-ended interpretation. Although the subject matter comes from my perspective, it’s the articulation of those experiences that makes me feel like I have found my place in the world. I like to describe my work as being gritty and childlike, allowing these ambiguities to thrive between serious, mature, fun, and playful. I think it creates a moment of light-hearted melodrama that can be difficult to conduct otherwise. The progress of my work has been an exhilarating journey, constantly influenced by the world around me and always observing.
When it comes to my business, it’s not what I went to school for and not what I planned on doing after college (although I plan to go back for an MFA). My interest in this started when I was in my early twenties, picking up jobs as a self-taught graphic designer and dabbling in screen printing research. Many graphic design opportunities would lead to a client’s question if I make shirts, or knew someone who did. Over time I realized that logos and t-shirts went hand in hand while being a necessity for most businesses. I also wanted to help my clients grow. My drawing and painting experience fed directly into the graphic design elements, besides the learning curve of Adobe Illustrator, and being able to make a screen and cure a shirt made me feel like a genius. The more I learned the more excited I became. I also realized that every skill in this industry was tightly intertwined, so they fed into one another. Images can be burned into screens, and digitized into embroidery, using a very similar process of color separation. This is why I suggest to all creatives, who want to make a career from their work, to expand and become versatile. Most mediums complement each other and the slight tweak of a process can open up an entirely new world for you.
For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?
The most rewarding aspect of being an artist is finding purpose in something. The works I make are heavily influenced by my own experiences, but having the ability to connect with people through the work helps me to identify purpose. Exhibiting or sharing work publically typically starts conversation about my subject matter. Audiences see in to it and make their own personal connections. I’ve built relationships with others who share similar experiences, and I find so much joy through this process. There’s also the reward of being my own “boss” and having the freedom of time. This doesn’t follow my painting career as much as my screen printing business, but working for myself gives me the ability to create my own hours, schedule, etc. in order to make time for the things I enjoy.
Have you ever had to pivot?
Ever since I began taking my art career seriously I think I pivot once or twice a year. I often tell people that the beauty of being an artist is that every day could be a new opportunity. At the same time, every day could be a challenge. The thing about being an artist, or probably any type of entrepreneur/business owner, is that there is rarely a set schedule or a mundane routine that is followed. I’m either picking up new clients or finding ways to reach them, and those clients can have a major impact on your business depending on the volume of their inquiries. But other aspects are impacted such as the entire direction of where you’re headed. My most recent shift happened a few months ago as I was applying to grad school in NYC. I applied to multiple schools and was accepted into one, but due to the hardships of finding a place to live and the apartment conditions I was living at in Tampa being crappy, I had to stay in Tampa and move apartments just to stay afloat financially. Since then I decided to take the money I was saving toward NYC and put it towards a new studio and started collaborating on an art gallery. There was absolutely no way that I saw this coming, I was planning my NYC move for over a year. But in the blink of an eye, I had to figure out a new direction for where I was going, and then new opportunities began falling into place. As they say, after every storm, there’s a rainbow, and right now the clouds are starting to clear. Regardless of your pivot, place one foot in front of the other and don’t look back. Success follows hard work and determination.
Contact Info:
- Website: chrissellersart.com & csadesigning.com
- Instagram: @chrissellersart & @csa_designing
- Facebook: Chris Sellers Art & CSA Designing
- Yelp: CSA Designing