We recently connected with Christian Hamrick and have shared our conversation below.

Christian, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. If you could go back in time do you wish you had started your creative career sooner or later?

Since I was a child, I have always been making art. When we were kids, my mom would let us paint the floors and walls of our house. We grew up without a TV, so I would read books and make drawings of things that I read about. In grade school, kids would give me their lunch money to make drawings of cartoon characters…I remember doing a lot of Dragon Ball Z drawings. Making art, whether for myself or for someone else, has always been a big part of life. It was never the situation where I wasn’t making art and had some conscious decision to start making art for the first time. Looking back, I sometimes wish I had had the clarity to know just how important being an artist is to me. Growing up in the Deep South, I had so many people telling me that I couldn’t be an artist, that it wasn’t possible, that I should do something else to make money and then maybe do art on the side. So many people honestly believed that art was not important and they made sure to let me know (I don’t think they were trying to be hurtful, I think it was a classic situation of “what is best for me”).
There was one person in my hometown that believed in me being an artist. She asked me what I was going to do after I graduated High School. After I told her about my plans to go be an Engineer, she was visibly disappointed and said, “You are wasting your talent.” I think she knew that my plans were not MY plans.
It wasn’t until I was in college, studying Chemical Engineering, that I was free from every single person around saying art isn’t real. I began to paint more than I had ever painted, and had the new experience of people wondering why I wasn’t going to be an artist. It took awhile, but I finally shook off all the old “advice” and “views” and learned the important lesson to understand one’s self. Art is very important to me. I AM an artist.
I know I am not alone in this experience, and so I always try to encourage others to listen to themselves and understand what it is they really want to do in life.

Christian, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

For those who may not have read about me or my work before, I am a visual artist. Generally speaking, I create artworks–mostly paintings, drawings, and sculptures. I have worked with architects, film makers, theaters, advertising agencies, governments, small/large businesses and institutions, and creating artwork in all sorts of shapes and sizes! I put together bodies of my work and exhibit them in galleries, art centers, and museums. I also produce fine art prints and smaller paintings or sculpture that is affordable and accessible to a wider range of people.

Currently I am making sculptures out of mud and straw. These sculptures are unfired and impermanent–they will crumble with time and sink back into the earth. Along with these, I am creating a series of large scale paintings exploring moment, self, and temporality. Once this body of work is complete, I plan to show it here in the South. I moved back here about a year ago, after many years out and about in the world.

Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?

I think non-creatives often struggle to understand that sometimes artwork does not fit into the systemic channels of efficiency or business centric models of existence that we as a society worship and hold so sacred. I have found many people do not understand that there is a purpose for creating something besides selling it; many people equate the meaning of art to dollar signs and struggle to see beyond that… But there is so much more than that! Art making and creativity is a profoundly human practice–the history of art and evidence of people creating art extends deep into the darkness of the past. There is joy in art, there is freedom, there is thought and discovery, revelation, experience, and so much more. Art is a great mirror, the all seeing orb, undefined perpetuity of the soul. And this is the true value of art.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

One of my favorite stories of shifting to life’s curveballs involved a giant human butt. I spent many weeks building and planning the construction and of an 8-10 foot tall human torso. There was a very small window for delivery, and on the day of scheduled delivery the moving company I hired for transport cancelled the job a couple of hours before pickup. I called a friend and we strapped the monumental butt to the top of his truck and we took off from Brooklyn to Manhattan to make the delivery. There was heavy traffic on the Brooklyn Bridge. The situation went from chaotic and stressful to absolutely hilarious and unforgettable. Cars were honking and passengers cheering us on, pedestrians gawked and walked along beside us taking photos and utterly bewildered…I can only imagine what it looked like from a distance, to see a giant butt slowly making its way from Brooklyn, across the Bridge, and into the city…I am very thankful the movers cancelled.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.christianhamrick.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hamrick.studio/?hl=en
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMO-w4TrmWk
• Other: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_oUWnP3gT0&t=16s

Image Credits
Christian Hamrick and Studio Hamrick LLC