“If I just pick up a guitar and start banging around on it–am I being free? Yes, but there exist parameters and tools to artistic vocabulary in order to adequately express oneself,” says Chris Alvarez, as he begins picking a tune on the strings of his guitar. He goes on to explain this is what he learned in his own art and this is what he hopes to impart to his students. “We put marks on a page in order to say something.”
One look at the diversity in his subjects will convince a viewer that Alvarez has something to say. But what is the message? Alvarez looks around the studio and explains he loves to look at the ordinary and seek to make it extraordinary. An alleyway, a lone cyclist, an abandoned car, a freeway at sunrise. And the occasional chicken. “People like chickens… I like chickens,” he states simply. “Hopefully through my art people can see the beauty in something they previously considered mundane.”
Fair point. Today’s age is one of fast movement and instant gratification. It’s easy to respect his efforts to slow things down in order to truly see what is going on in the background.
Little Snapshots
He calls his paintings “compositions,” and they serve as little snapshots of his experiences. He explains his commitment to keeping his eyes open to see in ways that other people don’t see and then memorialize them on a medium. “If I were a cinematographer, it’s how I would frame my day,” he says. He can be found taking weird or odd pictures with his phone that might not make much sense to the viewer at the time—until he gets a paintbrush and paint in his hands.
Alvarez looks at his subjects in a kaleidoscope of color. Is that wall gray? Or is it violet in the shadows and orange where the light hits it? Is snow white? Or does it purvey shades of blue, yellow and pink? He explains how this is a common conversation he has with his kids and with his students. It's about slowing down enough to see the colors that other people don’t see.
It's about looking at something three-dimensional and abstracting it into a two-dimensional arrangement. It's about seeing something–anything–and finding a way to make it attractive from a distance or up close.
Experiences + Perspective
This ability may have developed when he started drawing and painting as a child right after his cousin came to live with them for a change of scenery. It could have developed during his time in high school when his friends would challenge him to draw something just to see if he could. There was that stint as a biology major because practical people will always ask how one plans to pay their bills. There was the captivating art major he met in college who reignited his love for art. It could have been his time as an optometric assistant in the Army, or the time he spent in social work working with at-risk youth. It likely had something to do with how he felt when his kids were born. It definitely has to do with the art community he found and fostered here in Colorado Springs.
Because life is a culmination of experiences and perspective. Alvarez always knew his expression of these experiences was through art. So he went all in, finished his art degree and started teaching art at UCCS. Now he runs his own art school, seeking to teach parameters and tools to artistic expression, but also teaching perspective and helping budding artists build a community of people who will grow and challenge them to create in a way that expresses what they have to say.
He explains certain paintings are visual songs to him. Some have stories and some tell their own stories.
“It warms my heart when I find out I touched someone and they buy one of my paintings,” he muses. After a thoughtful pause, he adds, “I painted it for you. I just didn’t know it at the time.”
Website: https://alvarezschool.com/
Facebook: @Chris.Alvarez.351
Instagram: @AlvarezGallery_ArtSchool