|
| help | media kit | about us | services | contact |
| |||
| |||
|
| ||
| NEWEST TRENDS . SEARCH . BUY . JOIN . COLLECT . RESEARCH . READ . DISCUSS | |||
| |||
|
Indepth Arts News: "A Gift and A Curse: Work by Chris Mohler" 2007-03-14 until 2007-04-27 Fresh A.I.R. Gallery Columbus, OH, USA United States of America
History
One day at the age of 6, I was on a fire escape of a playhouse theater dropping rocks on soda cans below. My mother, an actress, was inside the first floor rehearsal hall practicing for her starring role in the next production. Her idea of baby sitting was having me hang out at the theater. Being a hot summer evening, the doors were open and the ruckus I was making distracted the others so much that I was pulled inside and put to work building stage sets.
That marked my entrance into the arts. I learned that trade over the next eight years. My motherís death from cancer when I was 15 solidified my absolute dedication to art.
Schooling included Kent State on a full scholarship, and Maryland Institute of Art in Baltimore. After college, I became a resident artist of Sculpture Space, Inc., in Utica, New York. After a brief stint in New York City, I moved to Columbus where I have been creating and selling art full time for the last 20+ years.
The Curse
They say bi-polar is genetic but requires an environmental trigger to set it off. My mother's death when I was 15 from a 5 year battle with cancer was certainly this trigger. Episodes of mania took their toll on my formal education and forced me to leave college, lose jobs and alienate many friends.
The bi-polar would have killed me years ago if I weren't an artist. The last six years when it gets so bad that I'm looking for tall buildings or ropes, I instead go to the studio and destroy art. I've easily destroyed over a hundred pieces.
The Gift
I have created thousands of works of art over the last 20 years. I work primarily in steel sculpture, large and small, as well as chalk drawings. My inspiration and style have developed over the years, and include influences from science, with the older work involving chaos theory and the new, geometry.
The work in this show is all new, created in the last two years. It includes black geometric wall hangings, and lots of other geometric work. (Some may recognize a similar trend in the work of famous sculptor David Smith, who passed away in 1965. He also did an array of complex works whose style changed to geometry later in life.)
I'm also showing 32 x 40 inch chalk on paper drawings that I've been doing since 1997.
I'm so grateful for being alive! I was given a mission. I accepted it and ran with it.
Art is my life. Art has given me life. Art gives me life.
- Chris Mohler
View more of Chris' work in his Premiere Portfolio at http://www.absolutearts.com/portfolios/c/chrismohler/. Also his work can be seen at www.chrismohler.com.
|  |
|
|
|
|
 |
||
|
|
||
Fresh A.I.R. Gallery in Columbus presents "A Gift and A Curse", new work by Chris Mohler through the end of April 2007. "Gifted but cursed with bi-polar. I wouldn't be an artist if it weren't for the bi-polar. And I wouldn't be alive if I weren't an artist. I've often thought that art is the application of insanity," states Mohler. Fresh A.I.R. Gallery exhibits the works of individuals affected by mental illness and/or substance abuse disorders. Through art, their goal is to educate the community and work to break down the stigma of mental illness and substance abuse by bringing focus to the artistic vision. Chris Mohler has been a Premiere Portfolio Artist at absolutearts.com since
