Interview by Vivian Hua
"If you let your head get too big, you stop growing."
- Chris Sheridan
As I walk into the spacious studio Chris Sheridan shares with his girlfriend and fellow artist, Kate Protage, I can't help but wonder how two painters can maintain a space that is so impeccably clean. The floor is practically spotless, no art supplies are in sight, and the canvasses are hung perfectly on the walls.
Sheridan seems like a normal guy. Prior to the interview, he had been longboarding up and down the wooden planks in his building in an attempt to calm his nerves. He comes across as a big kid who's extremely laid-back and doesn't take too much seriously. But talking to him reveals a different side – one that is extremely passionate and almost overwhelmingly dedicated to art.
The reason his space is so clean is not because he barely works in his studio or because he only minorly dabbles in art. Quite the contrary, actually. Although he works in his studio nearly full-time, his space is clean because he takes art so seriously that he wants to make every aspect of it right. To Sheridan, perfect brushstrokes aren't the only significant point of focus; ensuring that his visitors have amazing experiences in his studio is nearly just as important. Every other month, he repaints the floors of the space and redoes the lighting. He takes care to put his equipment and supplies in wheeled storage bins so that they can be easily wheeled off to the sidelines at a moment's notice. Presentation is everything.
"I want people to be able to come in here and see the art the way it should be," Sheridan explains. "I don't like art that is hung up with duct tape... I want to make it look right for people. They're coming out to see art. You don't want it to be a haphazard thing."
Sheridan's studio is located in the 619 Building in Seattle's historic Pioneer Square district. It is a multi-storied building filled with artist studios rented by artists of all different skills, mediums, and levels of dedication. Although the rent here is relatively expensive, having a studio in the 619 Building is well worth it. Every First Thursday of the month, galleries in the area are open for visitors to peruse. Some free-standing galleries get a lot of traffic, but the 619 Building gets about 200 to 500 people every month because it is a one-stop shop for dozens of galleries.
Sheridan has had studios all over the country – even in significant art hubs such as San Francisco and New York – but he acknowledges that he has never seen the amount of foot traffic he sees in the 619 Building. Being in the 619 Building has paid off for Sheridan. He has pretty much managed to sell paintings every month, with some months being more profitable than others. Even more important, though, is the fact that every month, he gets the opportunity to hear first-hand what people think about his work.
"People wax poetic about your stuff sometimes. It's cool, but you can't let that get to you. If you let your head get too big, you stop growing. It's like, 'I like your compliment, but now I need to get back and keep working,'" Sheridan says. He is extremely adamant about the idea that once an artist thinks he is the best, he is no longer the best, for he has stopped looking for ways to improve.
The quest for improvement is why Sheridan welcomes critiques. Perhaps it is the years of art schooling that has brought him to the conclusion that one cannot have art without critique, but Sheridan welcomes the good with the bad – if the bad is constructive and not simply just petty. "Sometimes someone comes along and critiques you, and they might point out something you've missed or fallen short of. If someone just says, 'That sucks,' and walks away, screw him. But if that person can come up and say, 'Hey, I don't think you should have done this, and this is why,' I will take that any day."
Negative critiques strike close to home for Sheridan because there has been one negative critique that has stuck with him for years. It may be a little hard-headed, but Sheridan has had an agenda to improve his figure painting ever since being a college undergrad at the Ringling School of Art and Design in Florida. One of his teachers, who was an extremely accomplished illustrator, came up to him one day and said, "You know, Chris, you do a pretty good job painting the figure, but there are so many people out there who paint the figure so much better than you, so I don't know why you do it."
Sheridan was mad at the time, but that bit of negative criticism resulted in a change in him. He has spent the following eight years working on his figures so that he can one day prove that professor wrong. "That experience has completely shaped who I am as an artist now, and I don't regret it for a second," Sheridan says.
But there was another teacher who played an even bigger role in Sheridan's art career, and it was his high school theatre instructor, John Sullivan. Although high schools generally pay minimal attention to the arts, Sheridan was lucky to attend the right school at the right time. In his theater class, he was given the opportunity to do everything from creating parade floats to working with pyrotechnics.
"People who have been under him have gone to work for Dreamworks and have run different programs at Disney," Sheridan says of Sullivan. "Asides from my mom who was always pushing me to do whatever it was that I liked to do, I really owe everything to him. He taught me so much about art. He just really made me love it. I'm not sure how else to say it. Each one of us has something that we're good at. He had a knack for exploiting the hell out of it... in a good way," he's quick to add.
By the time Sheridan became a high school Junior, his theatre class had compelled him to find a way to take the state minimum of required classes so he could fill his entire schedule with art classes. Since then, Sheridan has seen more art school than most, but unlike many of his counterparts, Sheridan doesn't regret being schooled. He hypothesizes, however, that his appreciation for schooling is largely due to the fact that he attended extremely traditional schools which focused largely on technique and had qualified teachers. Asides from attending Ringling, where he received a BA in Illustration, he attended the Academy Of Art in San Francisco and earned a MFA in Painting.
After graduating, Sheridan made sure to take jobs that were not too far removed from the art community so that he would always be involved. One of his jobs as a professional art handler in Manhattan involved doing art installations for a high-end gallery focused on works on paper.
"Even when you're making crates for some famous person's art, no one is as close to that piece of art as you are," recalls Sheridan. I could come in one day and see a Dürer on my desk, and I'd be like, 'Holy shit, this is really a Dürer! I'm not just looking at it behind glass.' Even though I wasn't creating art, I was able to see things up close – the details of where someone might've dropped it, where it was dog-eared..." At this point, one can tell that Sheridan isn't just saying these things to make some sort of artistic, pretentious point. He truly had been excited to find that small flaw in the art he was handling.
One day, however, handling other people's art was no longer enough. Sheridan decided that he needed to pursue art full-time and focus on his growth as an artist, because he had spent way too much money and effort to not pursue it seriously.
"To me, if you're going to do art, you should make your life about it. Strive all the time to be the best you can be," Sheridan states matter-of-factly. "This is what I love; this is what I'm going to do. You don't eat a lot. You might find yourself homeless. I lived in Mexico for a while. I've lived on the beaches of San Diego... but even in those times, it was about art and meeting incredible people to learn about their experiences so you can recreate it."
It's evident when speaking to Sheridan that art is the major factor in his life. He is not just an artist by title and he does not work simply for the glory; he lives the life of an artist because he has many reasons for creating and sharing his art.
"I'm creating these things not only to express who I am and what I'm thinking about, but for others to enjoy as well," Sheridan reveals.
I ask him if he keeps any of his paintings, and he shakes his head. "If it stays in my studio, it just gets dusty. People will accidentally spill wine on it. Sell it."
It seems almost funny to me that Sheridan can say these things in such a detached way. But then he says something that helps me understand.
"Let someone else enjoy it! Get it out of here. I need to pay for more paint."
While it has taken me an entire article to attempt to do so, he managed to summarize the ever-expanding Chris Sheridan experience with just a few words.
Growth cannot happen without sacrifice, and a forward-thinking artist like Sheridan does exactly that – move forward.
what do you think?
