Today we’d like to introduce you to Christopher Hall.
Can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today. You can include as little or as much detail as you’d like.
My life story. It’s either been a grand adventure or misadventure. Adventure is probably preferable. There are two perspectives to damn near anything, really. Positive or negative. A debate can be like war, but it can also be like a dance. I prefer the dance these days. So, I was born, legend has it, with a crayon in my hand. The doctor declared it a miraculous birth. There was little doubt I would be an artist when I would grow up. That’s the myth I like to tell. But the truth might be just as cool.
There was one single event in my life that drove me to pursue a career in art. It’s also tied in with why I was inspired to be a teacher. I was in High School and I couldn’t have more than 16, maybe 17. My art teacher was less than inspiring; I’m almost sure that I could have skipped class and it would have gone unnoticed. I loved making art, but it wasn’t quite a passion yet. Writing was the same. I already knew I was a competent writer, but I wasn’t exactly inspired to pursue it as a career.
My music teacher put me on the path to where I am today. I learned the value of hard work. Talent and intelligence are one thing, but these gifts are just about worthless without discipline and hard work. He also genuinely cared and had an interest in our lives. I remember I was doing terrible in algebra, so he helped find me a tutor. And the passion he had for music and for teaching, it was contagious. I was given a belly full of fire not only for music, but for the love of life as well. He taught us to do it with passion, or not at all.
But this one event that drove me to pursue a career in art, it goes like this… We were playing in a national competition in Washington DC, Shostakovich’s Symphony Five, the Allegro non troppo. It’s a dramatic piece, forceful in the first part, quiet and somber in the middle, and then triumphant in conclusion. It was in the middle part, the quiet part, when I happened to look out to the audience. In the front row, I saw an old woman crying. It struck me to the core. We did this. We … did … this. I don’t know how or why exactly, but by playing our music, we moved her to tears. And from that day forward I knew exactly what I wanted to do for the rest of my life – make old women cry!
Has it been a smooth road? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Smooth Road? Not really. More like a rocky road. But I’ve learned to love it. It’s a great ice cream. Besides, it could be a lot worse. Dolly Madison’s favorite flavor was oyster ice cream. Disgusting, really. The lesson here is to try to leave the past in the past. Especially the early 19th century; they have strange food.
But to answer your question… financial worries a-plenty, and I’ve had more than my fair share of loss. My biggest struggle has been myself. I’ve been my own stumbling block and I’ve made plenty of mistakes. And then there are the innumerable instances of self-doubt that come with any career in creativity. But the truth is that we shouldn’t dwell on these things. We shouldn’t ignore them, either, or how else can we grow. But if we do look back at the past, it should be with kindness and compassion for ourselves and for others. I’m not sure if I am being too open here, but I am trying to speak in generalities, hoping that this might resonate with others.
I love my road, my journey, rocky or not. In a literal sense, my favorite hobby is simply driving, more so the driving than any destination. Driving with the windows down, tunes up, shaking off the dust that collects with too much time spent in one place, accumulating worry. There is incredible freedom in this.
Eventually I’d like my road to take me to a place where I can live my life like Spike, Snoopy’s recluse brother in the cartoon Peanuts. I’ve always loved how Spike is essentially a skinny version of Snoopy with a hat and moustache. He lives in the desert, discussing life with a neighboring cactus. It seems like a decent enough life.
I recently read in Wikipedia that Spike is supposed to live outside Needles, California. The day beforehand I read that there was supposedly a UFO crash in Needles in 2008. I love synchronicity. It will be interesting to hear the Department of Defense’s briefing before Congress this summer, now that they are finally acknowledging the existence of UFOs.
We’d love to learn more about your work. What do you do, what do you specialize in, what are you known for, etc. What are you most proud of? What sets you apart from others?
At heart I’m a teacher, at heart I’m an artist – both of these things equally. I view my teaching as a kind of art. It just so happens that I can do these things professionally, working for Kennesaw State University. I’m incredibly grateful for this and find my job gives me a purpose in life. I know this because when I teach or when I do something creative, all of life’s difficulties disappear for a time. You leave them at the door and you focus on the task at hand, what is present. When you help others you become less locked into yourself. There is something compelling about teaching and making art. I’m drawn to it, like a duck is to water.
Davy Crockett once wrote about his ability to grin a raccoon right out of a tree. Davy, Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier! That’s me in a nutshell, only in the classroom. I’m happy knowing that with a wry smile and clever words, I can encourage my students to look at the world with curiosity and wonder. I like being a role model and demonstrating leadership. I’m proud of what I do and I am happy I can use my talents to not only teach a new skill, or a specific kind of knowledge, but also help inspire my students to live life with confidence and courage, compassion and humor. That is why I love what I do.
With regard to my art practice, I think I am very much at a turning point. How nice it would be to have all of your work stored on a hard drive. No more objects, no more things. It used to be that I was interested in the monumental. I love Anselm Kiefer’s work. I once aspired to make gargantuan artworks, immersive works of great importance. The paint was so thick it could have been applied with a shovel. I would sometimes bury objects in the paint, as space fillers, things like paint brushes. I once made a painting that was so big, it was stuck in my second floor studio in Philadelphia. It wouldn’t fit in the freight elevator. A few years ago I made a mixed media painting that weighed forty pounds. All of this work had become a huge burden, an albatross hanging around my neck.
I’ve recently destroyed the vast majority of my artwork going all the way back to the mid 1990’s. All of that pent up psychic energy! It just needed to be released. It’s indescribable, this feeling of liberation. There is this theory on ghosts, that they could be a recording of a traumatic time in the life of the deceased, sort of like a video recording playing over and over again in a loop. In a similar fashion, I think that when an artwork is made, a lot of that artist’s psychic energy can get stored within that work. It is liberating, letting all of those moments go.
I sometimes think of Douglas Huebler and his statement that “The world is full of objects, more or less interesting; I do not wish to add any more. I prefer, simply, to state the existence of things in terms of time and place.” This sentiment is currently attractive to me. I don’t think I could stop making physical objects, but for now I am enjoying only making drawings and video work, things that can only fit in a flat file or a hard drive. I will have a video premiere coming up in September at Gallery 378 in Candler Park. It should be fun. You can come if you’d like.
What has been the most important lesson you’ve learned along your journey?
Wow… There are so many that I regard with equal importance… Stay in drugs, drink your school, don’t do milk. I think Mr. T said that. And there are others: Learn from your mistakes so you don’t repeat them. Learn to love yourself, be your own best friend. Stay in the present, but plan for the future. So many lessons… but maybe this gold mind grape:
The past can be a source of sadness, the future a source of anxiety. But neither past nor future exists. If you take your left hand and you try to reach out into the past, you will grasp at nothing. Air. If you take your right hand and try to reach out to the future, likewise, nothing. But the present does exist, and it is our responsibility to ourselves to make the most of it. Reach out with both hands and embrace it. Who knows, you might just grasp something beautiful, like a sunflower. For many of us, we might have to cultivate our garden first. And this might take some work, especially if you are unaccustomed to gardening. But I hear it is absolutely worth it in the end.
Contact Info:
- Email: chall1216@gmail.com
- Website: http://www.christopherhallart.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/christopher_hall_art/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kingofpainting/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4S_EIqlh5dwkkEreai1pCg
