Chris Roberts Antieau began her career in art by walking out of an art class. On her very first day in art school, the instructor had give the class an assignment to draw an ink bottle. The other students drew realistic sketches. Chris drew a blocky, childlike bottle that took up the whole page. The professor singled it out for mockery in front of the whole class, asking her, "Who told you you could draw?" Chris walked out and never looked back. Marriage and the birth of her son, Noah, put her art on hold for years. But when Noah was old enough to hold a crayon, the two of them began to draw together. Chris found herself fascinated by the raw childlike vision she saw in her son's drawings, and it wasn't long before she herself was "back at the drawing board" creating fabric cloth sculptures for regional art shows. Her first sale, which took her two days to make, sold for $18. Barely a year later, a visiting artist ran across Chris's work and suggested that she take a crack at creating designs for the then hopping wearable art market. Chris took her up on it, creating several jackets and vest, which she took to a show in Maryland. The response was overwhelming. Chris had hundreds of orders from stores across the country including Neiman Marcus. She returned home, hired a staff of fifteen, and set out to meet her commitments. Doing the complied and time consuming detail on each garment herself. At the end of that year, Chris had a thriving business, but she was miserable. She wanted to be an artist, no a manufacturer. So despite her remarkable success, Chris left the wearable art industry and spent the next year exploring other options. Again, it was a chance comment from a friend that set a new track. Chris had been struggling to find a medium, torn between her roots in sculptural objects, and the freedom shed had in her flat designs for wearable art. Her friend suggested using the fabric to make something hang on the wall. The next year, Chris returned to Maryland with the pieces that have now become her signature "fabric paintings" composed from freehand cut cloth shapes, behind glass in hand painted frames. True to her roots, Chris's gaze is still distinctly child inspired. She doesn't just mimic a child's style but reminds her viewers not to take themselves too seriously. Chris said people always want to know what her work is about but she is an artist not a writer. "If I could put it into words" she said "then I wouldn't have to make the pictures".
Contemplating the Universe 28 x 32 framed fabric, painted frame $2,600 SOLD King Kong 24 x 40 framed fabric, painted frame $3,200 Ray Charles 18 x 22 framed fabric, painted frame $1,000 Mermaid 30 x 14 framed fabric, painted frame $1,800 Wrestlers fabric, painted frame $500
