Today we’d like to introduce you to CHRISTOPHER TUCKER.
Hi CHRISTOPHER, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
I’ve been an artist my entire life. When I was a kid, I would demand that my parents and babysitters would draw for me, taking the characters from cartoons and comic books and rearranging them to match the stories in my head – but they weren’t very good at it, so I had to draw them myself. I learned to trace, then freehand draw, and expected to become a comic book illustrator.
I ended up going to an arts focused high school in Chicago, and being exposed to all the different art forms and styles changed my focus quite a bit, and I began pursuing fine arts rather than illustration. Unfortunately, the problems I had in high school followed me into college, namely that I didn’t like school – even art school – I found it to be rigid and constricting.
The places where I really flourished were in workshops and art centers. Places where they could teach you a skill or two, but mostly just gave you space to experiment. One thing that I’ve learned about myself over the years is that I enjoy the process of going from beginner to intermediate, far more than going from intermediate to expert. It’s just more fun, more experimental, it holds more possibilities to combine with other seemingly unrelated skills.
My wife and I moved to San Diego, from Chicago in 2016. It was a big change for us. We had spent our whole lives in Chicago, all of our family and friends were there. But once she finished her PhD in Art History and went on the job market, the offer from Mesa College in San Diego really stood out as the kind of opportunity we may never get again.
Almost all of the jobs that I’ve had were art adjacent, shop tech, art teacher, that sort of thing, and it continued in San Diego. I found myself at MakerPlace, a wood and metal shop with a million tools – and part of my job was to learn them all, in order to make sure people were using them safely. And in my spare time, I began making the kind of artwork that I have become known for today.
MakerPlace closed during the first year of the pandemic, but a similar shop called Maketory opened. I began working full time as an artist, creating digital artwork that I translate into wooden artwork, using a laser cutter (Here is a link to a process video I made: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OW5Hk4LEAsU ) and as the initial lock down began to lessen, I started showing my work in galleries.
Today I’ve been able to show and sell my artwork all over San Diego and Los Angeles. I’ve had a residency at Art Produce, a year long exhibit at the San Diego International Airport, and have a piece in the permanent collection of the County of San Diego. I’ve also recently been granted the opportunity to create a permanent public sculpture in the newly designated Encanto Black Arts District (on Imperial between 61st and 69th).
Both my wife and I have been able to find a home and a community here in San Diego. This is a wonderful city, and as much as one can sometimes miss the place where they grew up, I’m very grateful that we moved here.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
I think it’s pretty rare for artists to have a smooth road to success. The problem is that art can be expensive and time consuming, and you don’t get paid for it.
People tend to expect that art is a passion, that creating it is a whirlwind of joy, and displaying it is a great honor – and those things can all be true, but it’s also a job – a form of labor. Some of the pieces I make cost me hundreds of dollars in materials, and dozens of hours to create. Add to that a little extra time and money to apply for the opportunity to display in public, and that’s where you run into the mountains of rejection.
There are way more artists in the world than there are galleries, and the curators of those shows are artists as well, looking to realize their own visions – so that rejection usually isn’t about you and your work, but it is a difficult thing to endure over and over again, looking for that one win. If you successfully persevere through all of that, then maybe, if you’re lucky, someone will buy something from you.
The most difficult thing for me as an artist (and I’m surely not the only one who feels like this) is that your purpose, your passion, the thing that drives you, can almost never be your first priority.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I’m the kind of artist who switches how they work every few years. I like trying new things, and that’s allowed me to pick up a lot of different skills. The work I’ve been doing lately are portraits. They are often of black people, and the most recent ones are of my family. But they are made in an unusual way.
I have a background in 3D animation, and some of the animation tools I learned remain my favorite way to draw. I tend to start in Zbrush, a digital sculpting program. Imagine if someone gave you a ball of imaginary clay, and you can push it, pull it, shape it and paint it however you like. Then, because it’s 3D I can turn it all around in this digital space, finding just the right angle, then I take a rendering (a fancy screenshot) and put it into illustrator. I cut it up into a low resolution 2D color pattern, and assign a kind of wood to each of those colors.
Then it’s off to Maketory, where I use the laser cutter to cut each of those colored shapes out of various hardwoods. Then, using the original drawing as kind of a map, I assemble all of the wooden shapes together, just like putting together a puzzle. I hold it all in place with some wood glue and epoxy resin, sand it down and put a frame on it. The end result looks a lot like the kind of inlay or marquetry that you might find on antique furniture.
It’s a long and unusual process, but I enjoy working this way, and I really love the results. If you’re having trouble picturing how this all works, I have a process video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OW5Hk4LEAsU
Any advice for finding a mentor or networking in general?
I’ve never had a specific mentor relationship, but I have had a few people temporarily fill that role from time to time. What’s worked for me, is that I’m a sculptor. That means that I can’t practice my artwork from my living room – I need to go out into public spaces, and use public tools.
I worked at MakerPlace for almost a year, and I found an incredible group of artists and craftspeople, who were all ready to share their knowledge and interests. It was a wonderful community to be a part of. After they closed during the pandemic, many of the artists moved to Maketory, another co-working shop, with woodworking, metal working, laser cutting, 3D printing, and a great group of people who can train you on all of it (so feel free to come by, even if you have no experience at all!)
I also found myself teaching art classes at A Reason To Survive (A.R.T.S. in National City). I applied to show my work there in a group exhibition, and they immediately welcomed me into their community. I’ve honestly never in my life had such kind hearted, warm and creative coworkers.
My best advice for finding a community in the arts is to take a class. Facilities like Maketory are awesome if you want to learn a skill like woodworking or blacksmithing, and the community there will both guide you through your projects, and inspire you to create something new. Independent art centers, and community colleges like Mesa College, all have fairly inexpensive classes where you could learn a new skill, or practice an old one, but what they all have in common is that they will put you in a room with some like minded folks, who care about some of the same things you do.
Pricing:
- My work is priced between $1,000 and $4,000.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://sites.google.com/view/christopher-lloyd-tucker/home
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/christopher_lloyd_tucker/
- Youtube: Process Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OW5Hk4LEAsU
