My Artist Statement
Chris Waters
I have always thought of myself as an artist and am sure that will not change any time soon. I have certain early memories, more about art than anything else. For example, I remember the summer when I was really little and we were in the midst of a polio epidemic. The parks and city pool were closed. One of the activities organized was an art contest and I won that contest with a picture drawn of tribal Africans killing an elephant who had fallen into a hole in the ground. That did it for me! I was now an award-winning artist who would never as closely identify with any other title or discipline. I also remember the precise moment I understood linear perspective. I was seven years old. I remember distinguishing myself by drawing complex, observed trees rather than stumps with branches sticking out of the top. My works were also chosen to go up on the bulletin boards! I had favorite artists and even though I was from mid-Wisconsin, knew the floor plan of and could locate all the famous paintings in the Art Institute of Chicago by the time I graduated from high school.
In college I studied art but other things as well. I learned to think critically about my work and the work of others. I honed my skills through undergraduate and graduate school never wavering in my choice of what I would do. I was and am an artist. Though some work is unique and of the moment, like the piece in this exhibit, I tend to wok in series. There are the Barbie-inspired pieces with a more recent group done of views of Flint as seen from a former studio space in the 11th floor of the Northbank Building.
The Barbie Series emerged during my first sabbatical in winter 1995. At that time my daughter was seven years old and our house was littered with her paraphernalia including dressed, half dressed and undressed Barbies. One of the courses I developed and had been teaching and still teach is ART 410, Women as Artist and I had been grappling with the complex reality for women artists throughout history, who had to be very careful about societal roles and the appropriateness of their activities including how they used subjects and what subjects they chose. There were times when, although art was all about the human figure, it was unseemly for a woman artist’s work to show she had a comprehensive grasp of human anatomy because that might mean she had actually -gasp!- drawn from living models. Most of the issues faced by women artists had little effect on their male counterparts. In addition, I talked about women as subject in this course. Women subjects were and are often impossible figures and the Barbie dolls lolling around my house reminded me of women subjects in certain paintings. It struck me that one of the reasons Barbie was so popular was that there was pressure for our daughters and ourselves to see her as the unobtainable but desirable body type. She was anorexia in the making. So I began by replacing women subjects in famous paintings with their Barbie and Ken counterparts.
A later subset of this series are the Bondage Barbies. With them I am
addressing the notion of women’s suppression as individuals and adhesion to that wish for the impossible. I am pleased with how powerful the Bondage Barbies images are becoming as I complete each new work. I had thought I was finished with Barbie, but she remains a powerful icon, and I find I still have more to say using this image.
Several years ago members of the art faculty were given access to the 11th floor of the Northbank Center to use as studio space. The Northbank paintings naturally developed from the gift of that space. From the top stories of the building the views of Flint are impressive and surprisingly breathtaking. The first time I looked out of the windows I knew I would need to paint the views that spread out before me. The results are very large paintings directly addressing the ties and loyalty I have developed for the city of Flint. They are love paintings to Flint. I hpe more will come from the ground up as I no longer have access to that studio space.
As an artist, other activities beyond putting paint on paper and canvas have been part of my production in the past years. I have been involved in the curatorial oversight of a number of exhibits, most notable the Art and Censorship, Skirmishes in the Cultural Wars exhibit at the UM-Flint Fine Art Gallery with its accompanying lecture March 2006. I think it is important to share my educated responses with other artists, and it is not totally clear to me if the activities of a juror belong with art of teaching or perhaps both.
Both my passion for art and a poor starving college student’s need for funding ended up putting me in the classroom. As I studied art, teaching was, if not the furthest thing from my mind, certainly not in the middle of my radar screen. I was offered a teaching assistantship and with quaking trepidation and absolutely no training, entered the classroom. Once there, I never left. My teaching, beginning with that first TA experience in 1975, has spanned over 40 years with the last 28 spent at the University of Michigan-Flint as both professor and administrator. Over time, I have become increasingly devoted not only to the University of Michigan-Flint, but also to the City of Flint. I believe our fates are in many ways tied together and so will do whatever I can to have positives things happen for this institution in this College Town. And of the following I can be certain. Both teaching and making art will remain at my core, and Though those have slowed because of administrative duties, they cannot cease or I will cease.
I have loved painting and teaching. My fondest hope is to have my students surpass me in both skill and critical thought. I have worked hard to make that happen and would be unnerved if I ever stood in front of a class feeling unprepared. I have faced some challenges and had other advantages caused by the period of time during which I was a student. It was the late 1960’s through the 70’s. Those were sort of loosey-goosey technical times in the art studio with emphasis less on skill and more on critical thought and theory. For example, I had not been provided a strong grounding in color theory when I started teaching painting and had to work to gain expertise. I am eager to share it, and my students become very knowledgeable in this area. At the same time I was well-grounded in the history and the various theoretical aspects of art and was, myself, a fine painter. So, as a teacher, I try to pass on not only what I know but also help the students find ways to fill in their own blanks. My ideal student will gain a basic grounding in the essential skills, history, theory and practice of whatever medium they explore so when they apply their own experiences and person to their work and find their own “style” they will be in no way limited by an inadequate palette of skills, ideas and vocabulary from which to choose.
