| JULIE, OIL, 48 x 36. |
By Bonnie Gangelhoff
BORN: Phoenix, AZ.
ART EDUCATION: Bachelor of fine arts in painting from Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ.
STYLE: “Figurative representation with raw abstraction.”
FIRST ART SALE: “In third grade I sold a small pencil drawing of the animated TV characters the Simpsons, which paid for a cherry snow cone.”
SECOND-CHOICE CAREER: “An esoteric rock star à la David Byrne, circa 1980s.”
MANTRA OR MOTTO: “Boredom is the dream bird that hatches the egg of experience. A rustling in the leaves drives him away,” from Walter Benjamin.
QUIRKIEST TRAIT: “I watch C-SPAN like most guys watch ESPN.”
BIGGEST FEAR: “The landscape of feeling.”
FAVORITE STUDIO MUSIC: Charles Mingus, Radiohead, The Beatles, Duke Ellington, Wu-Tang Clan, Talking Heads, and Bob Dylan.
BEST ADVICE RECEIVED: “In order for the artist to have a world to express, he must first be situated in this world, oppressed or oppressing, resigned or rebellious, a man among men,” from Charles Baudelaire.
FAVORITE ARTWORK BY ANOTHER ARTIST: Lately it’s a tie between Gustave Courbet’s THE ORIGIN OF THE WORLD and Matthew Barney’s THE CREMASTER CYCLE.
PRICE RANGE: $1,000 to $6,000.
NEXT BIG GOAL: “To paint better paintings than the paintings I’ve been painting.”
CREATIVE SPARK: “The greatness of the past.”
I’LL KNOW I’VE MADE IT WHEN: “I run out of meaning.”
GALLERIES: www.chrissantamaria.org.
Featured in our annual “21 Under 31” article in September 2008