One day, a successful business man in his thirties picks up
a camera. Something inside him clicks
(no pun intended), and a desire is awaked from deep within. As a result, he turns his world upside down
in pursuit of his new found passion for photography and visual art. In short, he wipes his slate clean. He decides to leave a company in which he has
a partnership. He sells his house. And he doesn’t even know if he’s any
good. This isn’t a quirky movie
plot. This is Chris Madsen’s life.
Kita and
Mandy were lucky enough to sit down with Chris in his office at the Utah Arts
Alliance, where he creates visual art pieces from his photography shoots, and runs
his new business, Square Pixel, LLC. He
talked about the variety of techniques he uses to get his signature dark and
cinematic looks. We also chatted about
what drove him to make such a drastic change in his life, and how it’s paid
off. We both agreed when we left that
the man has guts of steel. 
Chris: I would
describe my photography as conceptual.
It’s hard to describe because I don’t think my work is like anyone’s
work. It’s a little bit conceptual, a
little bit dark. I try to create images
that will tell a bit of a story. They
all have pretty strong feminine qualities to them.
Mandy: Yes, I noticed
most of your work is of females. Is
there a reason for that?
Chris: 99.9% of my
work is female. I get a lot of
inspiration from early Renaissance images. Just the curvy, beautiful women. Also, everyone seems to appreciate women, even
women. 85%, if not 90, of my sales are
to women. I don’t have very many men
buyers.
Mandy: When did you
first know that you were interested in photography?
Chris: I picked up a
camera for the first time in my life about three and a half years ago. Something just clicked inside, like this was
what I should be doing. I was partners
in a company that I left, and eventually sold out my stock in. Got rid of my house, moved into an apartment,
got a studio, and just kind of redirected my life. It was kind of late in life, but something
just finally clicked.
Mandy: Were you into
art in general?
Chris: Not at all. I had no interest in art. I mean, I had gone to school for graphic
design, so I guess layout, but I had no real interest in art as a whole. I was never really into it. It was a major turning point in my life.
Kita: What made you
pick it up then?
Chris: I think it was
in the days of MySpace, when you could look at any photographer’s profile, and
they always had tons of pretty friends. So I thought, “Oh, if you have a camera, then
chicks dig you.” I thought it would get
me a lot more dates, which has not worked still, to this day. But I’m pretty happy doing what I’m doing.
Mandy: Did you have
any goals when you first started?
Chris: Well, when I
first started, I had no idea. I didn’t
know anything about photography. So
after a while, when I realized that I really enjoyed creating these scenes, my
goal became to get something into a gallery.
I probably had been shooting for less than a year, and I actually got
the opportunity from Derek Dyer, the director of the Utah Arts Alliance, to
display in one of their galleries downtown.
So I took, I think, three pieces and ended up selling one of them. A pretty large one. This guy was a passerby. He was just walking downtown, by the gallery,
and purchased it. So that really sparked
something in me to know that someone, somewhere, picked up a piece of my
artwork, paid for it, and is hanging it in his house, looking at it every
day. You always kind of wonder what
they’re thinking. So those were my early
goals. Now, my goal is to make more, if
not all of my living doing art. It’s
gotten to be maybe 20-30% of my income, and my goal is to make it 100%.
Mandy: What else do
you do?
Chris: I’m a freelance
graphic artist. Mostly websites or
retail packaging.
Mandy: So from the
time you take a picture to the finished product, do you do a lot of editing?
Chris: Well, I shoot
a couple of different styles. I shoot
digital, and they tend to be very heavily photo-shopped. I can’t paint, but for me, I can sit down and
create a scene the way I want to see it. So even the term “photographer” is one I use
very loosely. I’m not so much a
photographer as a visual artist. I do a
lot of other things, like Tintype, and/or Wet Plate Collodion, which is a
technique from the 1800s. I do Van Dyke
Browns and cyanotypes, and I also shoot film, which, there is no editing
process to. You get what you get. So, I
kind of jump back and forth with technologies.
Chris: You have a
photo shoot. There can be a lot of time in that if you have to travel
somewhere. My process from there would
be to come back and go through the images.
There may be several hundred from a shoot. And what’s different from a commercial
photographer, or someone who is shooting glamor, I’ll shoot five hundred images
and I’m really only looking for one or two to work with. I’m not creating an entire series. I’ll go
through and find the ones I like, and I’ll start editing them. I can typically spend four or five hours on a
single image. You can end up with two hundred layers on a Photoshop file. I really kind of just geek out at that
point. I’ll have my music on and just
really get into it. And sometimes you
get hours into it, decide you’ve created some garbage, and delete it. That happens pretty often. So once you have the image created then it’s
basically just getting it printed and framed.
Kita: So how did you
learn those older techniques you do?
Chris: By just making
stuff up. I probably do so many things
wrong, but it works for me. I would buy
books, YouTube videos; ask a lot of questions to people who were in the
industry. But a lot of it comes down to
making it up. For me, there’s not a
typical editing process. I would say
there are maybe one or two things that I tend to do consistently, but most
things I’m constantly just making up.
Mandy: You mentioned
women already; do you have any other main inspirations?
Chris: Well, I think
women’s curves are beautiful. I think a
woman, her body can be so mysterious, but I wouldn’t say that my inspiration
really comes directly from women. It
comes from a lot of stuff. It comes from
movies, music videos, when I’m editing, the music I’m listening to, the person
that I’m working with, and what I’m seeing in them as I’m working with them. So inspiration comes from so many places. I’m inspired by a lot of other artists. I spend a lot of time looking at other artists’
work that I admire.
Mandy: Do you ever
collaborate?
Chris: I’ve used
pieces for inspiration, or I’ve used pieces in the images, like jewelry, like
Carrie Wakefield. But as far as an
actual collaboration where we sit down and work on the piece together? No.
I’d be open to it, but one thing about my process being so scattered and
inconsistent is that it does make it harder to do that.
Chris: I think Salt
Lake as a whole is a very fickle and unsupportive place. I think the art scene is definitely
improving. I’ve noticed it from having a
lot of friends in local bands and all the art stuff here, people just don’t
support like they do in other places.
When I’ve been to gallery shows in other states, people are pretty
excited about it and want to support it.
In Utah, you have those people, but not as much. Also, Utah is a very clique-y place. You have
this little group of artists here, and that little group of artists there, and
they don’t really communicate. They
don’t share ideas; they’re not as friendly with each other. There are a lot of big egos in Utah.
Mandy: What would you
say is your biggest obstacle?
Chris: I think every
artist will wrestle with wondering if he’s creating good enough work. You become very self-critical as an artist. You’re putting your work out there to
basically be ripped to shreds by the public. Basically, the better you get and the more
known you get; the more people want to tell you vocally how much they hate you.
In a way, you know when you start having
more and more haters, you know you’re making some waves. It still doesn’t feel good when someone
doesn’t like your work, because you’re putting your heart and soul into it. I think every artist deals with that. And then financially, I’d love to travel more,
and shoot bigger concepts. I’d love to
have more gear. It’s definitely not
making me rich. But it is helping me
with my income.
Mandy: Are the people
in your life supportive?
Chris: I actually
have a lot of people in my life who are very supportive. And actually it’s really nice, because I was
in my thirties, late thirties even, when I decided I was going to be an artist
out of nowhere. And my family has been
very supportive, and I have a lot of supportive friends. I was lucky enough to have met Derek Dyer with
the Utah Arts Alliance, which is where my studio is. It’s a very supportive environment. You’re around a bunch of creative people who
care about art.
Mandy: What would you
be doing if you weren’t doing this?
Chris: I have no
idea. I worked in manufacturing before I
did this. Before that, I worked in
construction. I’d probably just be
designing. That’s okay, it’s not a bad
thing to do for a living, but it doesn’t inspire me like art does.
You can check out more of Chris’s art here:
Burningpaperhearts.com
Facebook.com/squarepixelllc
Upcoming Events:
October 18, 7-10 pm –
An October Evening multi-arts show – Salt Lake Masonic Temple, 650 East South
Temple, Salt Lake City facebook.com/anoctoberevening
November 1, 5 pm-12
am – First Friday Las Vegas – Downtown Las Vegas Arts District
firstfridaylasvegas.com
If you'd like us to interview a certain artist, or have something else to say, leave a comment below!
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