Christopher's Visceral Art

By my cousin, Christopher Roberts

I've never been really drawn to abstracts.  My taste has always tended more toward the soft focus, soothing images of impressionism.  Monet, Manet, Seurat.

Things are changing - mostly because of my cousin, Christopher Roberts.

Chris is my cousin Lynn's oldest son.  I used to baby sit him.  He was a blonde and beautiful child.  Then I moved.  Then they moved.  And I saw him very infrequently.  He was simply my second cousin, Lynn's kid (although he calls me "Aunt").  I loved him but I did not know him to be extraordinary.

Chris had trouble in school.  Not that he wasn't smart.  I am told he tests "brilliant", intelligence wise.  But Chris was gay and he was the first gay person in our family to "come out" (there have been more since).  Evidently the bullying in school was brutal.   Chris was a little misdirected early in young adulthood.  Trouble with substance abuse led to some bad decisions and some of his experiences have been extremely painful.  But ultimately, all of that led him to make a big change and he packed up and left Tucson to move to Portland where he went to school and I don't really know what else.  He started over.  Then, about a year ago, he took up residence in an artists' loft with other artists and they paint and create all day long.  And I thought: "Really, Chris?"

You see, Chris' grandmother was my Aunt Barbara.  She really was an artist and I secretly thought: "Just because Barbara was an artist doesn't mean..."  Nothing that I knew of Chris or his life ever gave me a reason to think he was an artist.  

I am an idiot.

When Chris first started posting his paintings, they reflected deeply personal feelings and experiences he had had in his life.  I appreciated them, but I couldn't feel them myself.  I didn't understand it.  But as his paintings continued to evolve, so did my interest.  His work is absolutely extraordinary.  He is brilliant - and not just intelligence wise.  

I am now a true fan.  And very strangely - it is his abstracts that I am absolutely in love with.  I am saving money to commission hopefully more than one piece from him.  Happily I get a "family discount" - but his work is truly amazing and worth a great deal more than he charges.  I look at the painting above and want to live there.  I think it is just spectacular.  (If you click on the picture above, you will see the entire painting.)

Chris did not ask me to write this.  He doesn't know that I am.  But if you are into art collecting, I would bet on him and buy before you can't.  

You can find him on Facebook by searching "Christopher's Visceral Art".