We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Christopher Harris a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Christopher, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Do you manage your own social media?
I’ve always handled social media on my own, but I’ve never enjoyed it. To me, social media promotion has always seemed opaque and difficult to navigate. As I get closer to finishing the first several books in my upcoming sci-fi/fantasy series, The Ring of Worlds, I realized I couldn’t go halfway with promoting myself. That’s why I contracted with an author’s assistance service to help with editing, formatting, and promotion for my books. I plan to take pointers from that and apply it to my artwork to help improve my exposure there too. I’ve been sharing my artwork to Instagram and Facebook for years, but social media promotion is still a mystery to me. Despite having closed my Facebook account several times, I’m now using it solely for art promotion.
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.
As a child, I started writing, drawing, and painting. I frequently entered art contests and won, which entertained me, but didn’t help me much monetarily (lol). My parents supported my interests by buying me a typewriter, art pens and pencils, markers, and painting supplies. While studying Āyurveda (which became my career by age 17), I continued to sell pieces, do commission work, and chip away at my writing. In 1998, I acquired my first computer and discovered Photoshop 3, Bryce 5, and 3D Studio Max. Since then, I’ve been passionate about digital media’s freedom. Although early computers couldn’t create photorealistic images, they laid the foundation for my current art style. My style includes lots of light, luminous, ethereal colors and patterns, and an assortment of real-world, computer-generated, and painted layers and textures. Some of my Photoshop master files are 5 or 6 gigabytes on the hard drive, and I can print my images with high-resolution detail at huge sizes (10 or 12 feet on the long side).
We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?
Growing up, my parents often attributed success to luck. It was as if people were randomly bestowed with some sort of mystical power that made them successful. But as I grew older and delved into self-help books and talked to successful people, I realized that luck had very little to do with it. The people who seemed the most successful talked about working hard, being adaptable, getting back up after failures, and seizing opportunities.
Out of all the advice I received, what struck me the most was the importance of capitalizing on opportunities. The most successful people I talked to were those who were always on the lookout for ways to introduce themselves to others, recruit clients, or make sales. They didn’t wait for things to happen to them; they actively sought out opportunities and made the most of them.
I came to understand that success wasn’t about luck, even though chance events can certainly play a role in any endeavor. Rather, it was about seizing opportunities when they presented themselves. I realized that my promotion efforts would only be as good as my willingness to act on the leads, connections, and chances that came my way.
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
Creating art and writing have been passions of mine since early childhood. However, it has taken decades to get my books published and sell my artwork. Despite the obstacles, I continued building my Āyurvedic practice and teaching Aṣṭāṅga Yoga while pursuing my creative endeavors. Unfortunately, I experienced a significant setback when I lost much of my artwork and completed first drafts of my books due to a hard drive failure before cloud storage was available. It was a painful experience, and I felt sick to my stomach from the emotional strain.
Although I didn’t try to rewrite the books I had lost or recreate the pictures, I didn’t let the loss stop me from pursuing what I loved. Instead, I allowed elements of the lost work to inspire me in other creative projects. I’m proud to say that I have a sci-fi/fantasy series that I’m really proud of getting published later this year through the indie author route, and I’m also creating stickers from my artwork to generate additional revenue. Additionally, I continue to market my online prints through Pictorem to promote myself and my work.
I could have let the loss of those materials defeat me, but I chose to persevere. Despite the challenges, I kept going and refused to let the setback hinder my creativity and passion for my craft. 
Contact Info:
- Website: www.chrisharrisart.com
- Instagram: chrisharrisart12
- Facebook: chrisharrisart
- Other: I also have a Linktree, https://linktr.ee/aurelaan, which links to everything of mine. Plus, https://www.theringofworlds.com/ for my book series.
Image Credits
The photo of me is from a few years ago, it was taken by Nancy Grendl. I have permission to use it as my profile picture online and in print. All of the other images are my artwork.