Confession…I’ve never written a blog post. Ever.
In fact, outside of emails, I haven’t written much of anything since I was a senior at the University of Alabama in 19-whatever.
But in this age of websites and social media, and with 5.07 billion people around the world having internet access, how can I stand out among a sea of talented artists? Yes – obviously, I hope my work draws attention and can stand on its own. But beyond that, I’d like you to actually get to know me. So here I am behind the keyboard.
First things first – I was born in St. Louis, Missouri but have lived nearly all of my life in Miami, Florida. I attended the University of Alabama – ROLL TIDE! (More about that in a future post). I have a beautiful wife, two daughters in college, and a dog named Bama. The girls picked him out, but I retained the naming rights.
I’ve been drawing since I was old enough to hold a pencil/crayon/marker and was heavily influenced by Marvel and DC comics along with 70s and 80s pop culture. First comic book…”Captain America”. First movie…”Star Wars”. You get the idea. I’m largely a self-taught artist. I attended a magnet school from 7th – 9th grade and took art classes, but they spent a lot of time teaching me how to sculpt and paint, when all I ever wanted to do was draw. As I got older, I started picking up more influences…sports, music, and Americana, representing everything I love about this country.
Meanwhile, life was happening. I graduated from Bama and started a career in tech, got married, had kids, and kept chasing the next promotion and next job opportunity as a cog in corporate America. As I got busier, I started drawing less and although the output diminished, the ideas and inspiration never fully did. I’d draw occasionally and was satisfied with my audience being my friends and family – and all of them kept saying the same thing; “You should let more people see your work.”
So here we are.
What should you expect from my art? Well I’m definitely an analog artist in a digital world. All of my work is hand-drawn with pencil and paper. No knock on digital artists – it’s just not my thing. My work is photorealistic. You’ll hear me say it a lot, but details matter. As far as subject matter goes, I have a couple of basic criteria; (1) does it interest and excite me? and (2) would I hang it in my house? I generally describe my work as high quality fine art for men. It’s art that guys would be proud to hang in their man cave, above their workbench, or in their home office.
I’ve got a lot of ideas that I need to get onto paper, but I’m also open to taking commissions, so if you have a particular idea for an image, hit me up and let’s collaborate on it.
I hope you come along with me on this journey. Please follow me on my socials: Instagram, facebook, and X (the artist formerly known as Twitter). Feel free to email me at chris@schainart.com and please sign up for my mailing list here so you can be notified whenever new prints drop.
It’s gonna be a fun ride!
Humbly,
Chris
