Meet Chris Bates of Mighty Fine Art in Fort Collins

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

Chris, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I grew up in Northern Colorado and have been drawing as long as I can remember. No matter what was happening in my life, be it school, summer breaks, skiboard bumming, college, fatherhood, art was always a constant. I was the kid that doodled a frame around my half-finished math work and somehow managed to pass all of my classes. After a few years of being a skiboard bum and continually making art, I decided to take it more seriously and enrolled in college at Western State in Gunnison, CO. I received a BFA in painting and graduated with honors. Around the same time as graduating college, I started a family and found myself a father of two boys. I was working in the service industry and hustling hard to try and build an art career.

A big change happened when I entered a piece of art in a contest sponsored by the Hip Hop band, The Roots. They wanted fan art for an after-party they were throwing in Paris. My work was accepted and they heaped a ton of praise on me. Flash forward two months and I am sitting in a booth, poppin champagne with the band while listening to? Questlove spin records. It was a surreal experience to be sitting with your musical idols in Paris and having them tell you how amazing your work is. I was beside myself as a young father of two, who was more waiter than an artist. I came home fired up! Feeling like I had something to contribute to the world, I was dead set on creating an art career. I went crazy over the next few years creating art and soon I had artwork in coffee shops, restaurants and bars up and down the front range, every month for three years straight. I got into a few gallery shows but never found footing in that world, nor did the coffee shop/bar scene provide much in the way of income. By a stroke of luck, I fell into my first mural at Hodi’s Half note in 2009. This was the same time that the City of Fort Collins was starting their Transformer Box Mural Project. When that project came online, I was one of the few people in town that had a mural under their belt. Over the next decade, I have built an extensive portfolio of public and private murals.

Mural painting is where I have found my greatest success but drawing has always been my passion. The drawing side of my career has mostly been commission-based portraits. I came up with a multi-layered technique of visual storytelling that I call “finetooning,” and I utilize it to tell family histories, mark anniversaries and most recently draw murals. This style of work is what I am most proud of and has been the greatest struggle to find sustained traction with. As a creative innovator, I have supplemented my income by creating mural classes for grade school students, sat on steering committees for Art incubators and city development boards, done live painting with bands, hung art in galleries, have been on numerous discussion panels and most recently partnered with nonprofits to generate donations during this pandemic.

Great, so 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?
Rarely do you meet someone who is following their dreams and has had an easy road. I am a person who, at times, survives off of sure will and a stubborn nature. The artworld is a place that has thousands of ways to succeed and a thousand ways to fail. I am lucky enough to have been able to blaze a trail and be flexible enough to pivot and expand as needed. Everyone has their struggles, whether it be financial, familial, creative, or emotional. It’s how you face those struggles and overcome them that matters. I started my art career during the Great Recession and saw many of my friends, with “real” jobs, worry about their livelihoods.

At that time, I saw my art slowly take off and it gave me comfort in the insecurity of things. Going through this current pandemic, the experience of finding calm in the storm has been vital to my well being. Artists are used to the boom and bust cycle and we are inspirational and seemingly magical in the way that we can make things happen. I would love to see a world where city officials looked to artists as people that can help shape the fabric of society. We are visionaries and creative problem solvers and yet often treated as afterthoughts or sideshows. Does that answer the question? Who knows? Maybe my biggest struggle is staying focused on a singular task… Squirrel!!!

We’d love to hear more about your art.
I am a 2D artist who has many ways of working. As a mural painter, I have developed half a dozen styles that I enjoy working in. Most of these tend to be brightly colored with a high amount of contrast. I am also a huge fan of black linework, some may say I am addicted to them. When I’m drawing, I like to work in black and white. I mentioned my “finetooning” technique earlier. This style utilizes small illustrations to build the whole, greater image and they tell the story of the main subject. It looks one way from far away and slowly overwhelms the eye with information as you get closer to it. I started doing these as pen and ink portraits on paper but have since expanded into landscapes, architectural drawings and large scale murals. The most recent way I have been working is drawing on plywood. I am pretty obsessed with my jigsaw lately. I love the 3D layered aspect that I can achieve with wood and paint. As we speak, I’m literally itching to get over to the piece that is beckoning me from my table.

Aside from the styles and technical aspects of my art, the thing that sets me apart is my collaborative spirit. I love doing commission work and I love telling stories. When a client has something that they want to say or something that they are trying to achieve. It brings out the best in me. I see my role of an artist as a conduit. I have a strong ability to listen and observe, take loads of data and compile it into a visual representation of whatever someone was hoping to achieve. Whether that is a 30’ mural that tells a 50-year history of a company or an 8X10” drawing that is for a kid’s room. I relish in the challenge of creating something that exceeds someone’s hopes and is at the same time, something that I am proud of creating. Mostly I am just thrilled to be in the long line of artists and creators throughout time and hope to contribute something to that legacy and amazing group of talented oddballs.

What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
My proudest moment so far has to be the present. I have had so many projects, inspirations and moments in my career that stand out. But it’s always the most recent ones that propel me forward and assure me that there is a place for my art in the world. Currently, I have found a way to keep working and contribute to those in need. I am partnering with local nonprofits and creating weekly pieces of art. I auction them off on social media and half the money raised goes to the charity. The people who purchase the art get the tax write-off for their donation to the nonprofit. In my mind, it’s a win-win-win-win and we all could use a little more winning these days. If my art can provide a glimmer of sunshine to the world right now that is something I can be proud of.

 Pricing:

• Murals $1000-$60,000
• Finteoon drawings $1000-15,000
• Jigsaw Art $200-$1000

Contact Info:

• Website: www.mightyfineart.org
• Email: chrisbatesart@gmail.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mightyfineartist/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mightyfine.art.3

Image Credit:
Don Markus, Kind Dub

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