Psychedelic Scene (PS) interviews artist C.S. “Chris” Hawks:

PS: Where are you from?
CH: I am from another dimension.

PS: Who are your biggest influences?
CH: Leonardo da Vinci, Salvador Dali, David Bowie, and my partner Holly Hawks are by far the biggest influences upon me as an artist. They have had a huge impact on my creative, spiritual, and professional outlooks.

PS: Tell me about your favorite medium:
CH: Considering all of the mediums that I like to play with… traditional drawing and painting media, music theory, and performance art… If I have to choose… My FAVORITE medium would have to be: “drawing” with graphite pencil to paper. It’s the ultimate tractor beam to ideas.

PS: Where do you find inspiration?
CH: Observing nature, specifically the nature of physics, thermodynamics, smoke, and the nature of consciousness. Math functions and geometry are pretty cool (^=

PS: What is your favorite time of day to create?
CH: The bewitching hours, of course.

PS: Describe how art is important to society.
CH: Art moves society forward. Art illuminates the possibilities of ideas like past and future, through the medium of the gravity of now.

PS: What motivates you to create?
CH: Dada. I think it’s like my will to live. I live and breathe art.

PS: How do you define success as an artist?
CH: The act of creation is a success. That’s a start; a spark. The trick to cultivating GROWING success is learning how to build thy own fire. That fire is fueled by the ideas that we bring into our shared world. The sweat, tears, and, dare I say, blood, that society sheds upon its roaring fiery cultivations of success are what make the lighting that broadcasts our worlds’ visions into life.

PS: Does art help you in other areas of your life?
CH: (^= yes.

PS: How do you develop your art skills?
CH: Practice, of course. I have been thinking about writing up some student curriculum, for sharing techniques on how to draw and paint like a pro. I do like expanding my horizons, flexing more muscle memory connections by playing music, studying music theory, by practicing arpeggios, modes, and chords.

PS: Have you worked as a professional artist before?
CH: I am an Independent Artist and American Entrepreneur.

PS: What’s the purpose or goal of your work?
CH: I make fun (^=

PS: How can your work affect social issues?
CH: A picture says a thousand words. Once you see, you can’t unsee. I am a lover of the 1st Amendment, and the Prime Directive of Star Trek.

PS: How do you navigate the professional art industry?
CH: By listening to my audience, and delivering what they want.

PS: Which art trends inspire your current work?
CH: Real Fantastic Art. Those are my words. It’s my brand. I don’t usually follow trends, but rather prefer to move to the beat of my own drum.

PS: How has your style changed over time?
CH: Like Bowie, I reinvent my style all of the time. It shifts with the tides of the great Zeitgeist.

PS: What are your favorite and least favorite parts of professional art?
CH: My favorite part is playing in Imagination Land. My least favorite part would have to be the grey rocks.

PS: Do you have a network of other artists, and how do they support you?
CH: I do have a tight network. We mostly support one another with information, and occasionally collaboration. Most often we’re all doing our own thing.

PS: What have critics and collectors said about your work?
CH: I am fortunate to have folks that adorn the art that I‘ve created on their walls in their homes, and in their offices. At this past Tucson Comic Con 2024, I had a new guy tell me that “I am going to buy these to hang them in the bare halls of my office building to guide people to my office, like breadcrumbs. I have art teachers, at various levels of education, that preach the Modernizing the Masters’ method that I developed. It’s for studying the great masterpieces of Art History, and applying that knowledge for students of the Arts for our contemporary time. You’d need a visual reference like The Poly-Multi-Meta-Verse is American: a re-imagining of surrealist painter Rene Magritte’s ”Son of Man” combined with influence from David Bowie’s “Earthling” album cover.

PS: Is there a specific environment or material that is integral to your work?
CH: Yes, It starts somewhere in the real world. A drawing, a writing, a painting. I’m old school, so I prefer thought to paper. The tools of creation may go as Fantastic as they may, but at the end of the day, it needs to be real. Tangible. Something people can experience.

 

Website

Instagram.com/Chris.Hawks.RFA

Facebook

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Reddit: r/RealFantasticArt