We were lucky to catch up with Christopher Babb recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Christopher, thanks for joining us today. What do you think it takes to be successful?

Success is a relative result to a process. For myself, the act of creating is a source of joy, catharsis, frustration and accomplishment.

To be successful, it takes the desire and sacrifice to do the act.
Art is not my “9-5” job. In order to paint, I have to carve the time out of my day. Sometimes it means early mornings, other times, late nights.

My success is not measured in the number of sales I have, but simply is the fact that I have managed to find the available time to maintain a relatively consistent and mildly prolific output of pieces.

I will continue to paint, whether they sell or just stack up in the studio.

Christopher, 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?

I am a classically trained artist with a Bachelor of Fine Arts from SMU. I always thought I would continue on the path of a creative into my professional life, but graduating college in the midst of the post 9-11 recession forced me to reconsider.
Rather than wait for the economy to rebound, I opted to continue my educational path and went pre-med at UT Dallas. I initially planned to go the traditional medical route when I was introduced to Chiropractic. With a background in sports, I was drawn to the idea of working with athletes and the opportunities that Chiropractic could offer.
I graduated from Parker University in 2008 with two more bachelor’s degrees and my doctorate.
Now, I am a lead doctor and managing partner for KinetikChain, a sports chiropractic clinic in Dallas.

Though I found myself settled into a career, I was not going to give up my passion of art and specifically painting. I make it a point to spend a portion of most days still painting or designing.
When my wife and I first met in 2019, she came to my apartment and was shocked to see that it had essentially become a studio I utilized in the evenings. Stacks of finished paintings lined the walls. She was blown away that I had painted som much and no one had seen them. From that moment on, she became one of the driving forces for me to get my paintings out in front of people’s eyes.
I have been fortunate to have my pieces picked for display in galleries, shows and purchased by private collectors over the years.

In conjunction with painting, in 2022 I started (and am the designer for) a clothing brand called “Sadboy.” Purposed with promoting men’s mental health needs. It began as an idea in response to the loss of a friend to suicide.
With art as my outlet, I created a clothing line to start conversations about mental health with a portion of the proceeds pledged to The Christopher Barkley Foundation.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

When you are young you have no parameters constricting your personal creative output. The sky is the limit.
When you go through classical training as an artist, you are given foundations, rules, strategies and theories.
Your work becomes “better”. It becomes accepted. Then it gets boring.
The best part of creating art is discovering. I have learned that, for me, understanding “the rules” is just the first step to being more effective at bending and breaking them. Unlearning the foundations of the techniques you apply allows for a freedom to play and progress.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

As I was becoming busier with my day job, I had stepped away from art entirely for close to ten years.
When I felt the need to start again in 2012, it was slow. I was rusty.
I found myself sitting at my desk after my workday starting with a sketch per night. As the months progressed, the project became more complex. I then moved back to canvas, painting into the early hours every night.
Over the next year, the room had become a full studio and I have been working consistently ever since.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://Christooherbabbart.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/christopher_babb_art?igsh=MW11ZnN6b3VqdmRlbA%3D%3D&utm_source=qr