Life & Work with Chris Kates of Edgewater

Today we’d like to introduce you to Chris Kates.

Hi Chris, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to today?
Of course! After graduating from Brooks Institute of Photography, I got a job at a business in Los Angeles that offered fine art reproduction and printing. A photographer friend of mine from school was moving to Denver to open an art gallery. He said that if I bought a large-format printer, the gallery would order all their prints through me. I quit my job and got a printer! I was printing for his gallery from my apartment in Los Angeles. After a few months, I decided to go ahead and relocate to Denver. This was in 2008. A scary but very appealing decision! Since then, I’ve connected with many local artists and helped with their printing needs. I went from a basement to an art studio in RiNo, to a more extensive art studio in Wheat Ridge, and now to a great storefront in Edgewater. I’ve got two amazing artists that work with me full time. We all love art and take pride in making beautiful reproductions of our customers’ artwork. I’ve put my photography ambitions aside for the time being because I enjoy just being a part of the process that helps other artists put their art out into the world. It’s an honor to play a role in what they offer.

Let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I’ve certainly had rough days along this journey. Emotions can run high when you offer a service that involves something as personal as someone’s artwork. We’ve had unrealistic expectations, and it’s not fun to navigate. I’ve learned not to take it personally. We build working relationships with artists, and when they don’t work out, it’s easy to get down about it. But you keep going and stay excited about all the great work you are doing and hopefully get to do more in the future.

I’ve also learned over the years that communication is vital. Like most trades, more work goes into what we do than people initially are aware of. If we didn’t put in all the time and energy that we do, the results wouldn’t be as great.

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar, what can you tell them about what you do?
We specialize in digitizing people’s original artwork and then making prints for them to sell to their customers. We are creatives working in the service of other creatives. The process we use primarily involves photographing paintings and sometimes scanning. Offering the best quality we possibly can at an affordable price is very important. When you look at a reproduction of a painting, I think it’s important that you forget it’s essentially a photograph. There is a lot of fantastic artwork globally, and some pieces are so loved that many people want to share in owning them. It makes me happy to help in a small way to make that possible. More businesses in town do what we do, but I think we all do it a bit differently. I know that when artists trust us with their projects, they will be able to speak directly to the person working on their order from start to finish. It’s a personal touch that I’m not sure other places have. I am grateful for those other companies because there are a lot of artists in this town! I believe there is so much abundance in the art world that there’s room for everybody.

Can you talk to us a bit about the role of luck?
I feel I’ve been fortunate to have the opportunities I’ve had. One thing led to another to bring me to this point. There were times when I wanted to give up (and mostly did) on my business. I walked dogs and did cat sitting for a while when things were slow. The harsh reality of starting a business for me was that sometimes you aren’t making enough income to justify the time you’re putting in. It can be not very encouraging. The fear that my luck will run out is something I live with. You never know what tomorrow will bring. But trusting in good things has brought me this far, so I try to stay focused on that.

Contact Info:

• Email: thepaintedpixel@gmail.com
• Website: www.thepaintedpixel.com
• Instagram: @thepaintedpixel
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/the-painted-pixel-edgewater-2