Issue 9 Artist Spotlight | Chris Potts
C+B: Tell us about yourself, Chris!
CP: Currently I'm an IT Systems Engineer during the day for the Washington D.C. transit authority! I help all of our citizens get around D.C. with our intelligent transit systems.
In my spare time I of COURSE love painting. Recently I've been into tattooing, and learning how to build my own miniature studio in my condo.
My background is a bit eclectic. I grew up being poked and prodded for years in scientific experiments for neurodivergent medicinal testing groups. I struggled with being an "outcast" (I prefer hermit😆) since I was very young. It's been incredibly hard for me to talk about that stuff because of how traumatic and painful it was being hooked up to machines and having needles shoved into my arm every week, being intensely scrutinized, tested, and told I had a genius level IQ of 147 at the age of 10. I couldn't handle that very well. I made few friends because I just think so differently it put the other kids off. This all built up over years, so I turned to drinking when I got into college. Drinking freed me from social pain, but shackled me to another.
By some miracle, and with more than a few social, emotional (and physical) scars from crippling addiction, I graduated college. Being an atypical thinker, and a bit of an outcast, I left college with very few friends. For a long, lonely time, I drank and suppressed my feelings of shame, guilt, and pain.
Then, one of my very closest friends died of a DUI related car crash, and one month later another of my closest friends (both of whom lived with me) died of an overdose.
To say I was obliterated was a grave understatement. I never made many friends, and the friends I have truly understand and know me. We are loyal and powerful with each other, and losing them hurt more than I could describe.
So, desperate and mortified with a side of PTSD I started painting.
And I SUCKED!
I just kept on being really really bad, and painting. I read and watched and listened and learned about painting from every source, any source!
I just kept trying and trying, practicing every day. Then, one day a really awesome couple invited me to join in on their magazine Clover & Bee!
I am so grateful for the opportunity to introduce myself to you all🤘🏼
C+B: Describe a time when you doubted yourself. Explain the scenario and how you were able to work through it.
CP: I doubt myself every time I pick up my paintbrush. There's just simply no way around self doubt for me! I have had to learn that painting, and art for me in general is an exercise in religion and prayer. I am communicating with my inner self, and my "God" if you will when I make art. I'm not religious, but deeply spiritual, and my prayer is my artwork.
C+B: Describe a time when you felt successful in your creative pursuits. Explain the scenario and what was so impactful for you.
CP: I just started painting in 2020, and I'm fortunate enough to have been invited to participate in multiple local or regional art shows every year after I began. It just keeps getting more and more successful! It's incredibly impactful for me because my sobriety informs my art, and my art informs my spirit. I am feeling fulfilled on a level I never dreamed of as a kid just doodling comics on his lecture notes.
Find and support Chris here:
IG: @chrispottsart
Website: https://www.chrispotts.com
(Millennial Life, acrylic, 36 x 48, ©Chris Potts)
Me in 3 words: Curious, sensitive, strong; I am incredibly inquisitive by nature, and due to my neurodivergence my emotions, senses, and perception are extremely heightened. Emotions play across my mind and heart like the aurora borealis.
My favorite artist of all time: One of my favorites is Hilma Af Klint. She's an insanely talented spiritual painter. Some methods she used are so powerfully resonant with me. I feel she was able to communicate with her inner spirit and really bring out some universal archetypal knowledge with her work. Absolutely mesmerizing.
A medium I’ve never tried but want to: So far I've tried a lot of different painting mediums, but tattooing is drawing me in very strongly. It's a way of canvas painting that is innately impermanent. We do not usually save the canvas of a person. That impermanence reminds me of our mortality and drives the messages I'm trying to spread.
