"Field Guide" Poster Prints Available!

I’m thrilled to announce that Field Guide posters are available for purchase in my print shop!

Each handsome poster print features rich, appealing colors on archival, acid-free matte paper. At launch, there are posters featuring seventeen different species; I plan to add another species each week. If you have a special request, please let me know!

Per my charitable sales model, whenever a Field Guide poster is purchased, a contribution equal to 10% of the print’s cost is made to a nonprofit working to tackle environmental or social challenges.

What is the Field Guide poster project all about? As a natural history nerd, I often think about how we humans classify and catalog life. The social implications of our evolved human impulse to categorize are generally grim, but the same proclivity allows us to better appreciate evolution and the relationship between species, subspecies, and ecological races (or ecotypes).

For the Field Guide project, I consider birds from one angle – literally, birds viewed in profile. I then breakdown each bird by color (plumage, legs, beaks/bills, and eyes) and create the column shown in the center of each poster. The colors in each column are stacked according to the percentage of a given color observed, with the largest share at the column’s top and the smallest share at the column’s base. The bird’s English common name and its scientific binomial are noted on the poster’s base, along with information on the bird’s sex, and, if relevant, plumage variation.

The resulting posters are visually compelling tributes to each featured species. Exhibited together, the posters can also be organized into a loose color taxonomy, providing an alternative, aestheticized approach to classifying or grouping these species.

I hope that the “Field Guide” posters will be appreciated by bird nerds, designers, and lovers of Josef Albers (🟪🟦🟩), but the project is also a playful way for me to both celebrate and critique the necessarily imperfect science of taxonomy.

Announcing Two New Limited Edition Prints

I’m delighted to announce that two new limited editions are now available on my website’s print shop. The prints were produced by the wonderful and conscientious John Janca (art•bot photography). I prioritized making these prints affordable, so grab them while they last!

Per my charitable sales model, 10% of each print price is donated to a nonprofit working to tackle pressing environmental or social challenges. Each print ships with a certificate of authenticity and care advice.

“Anima/Animus: Cyanocitta stelleri”
Archival pigment print on 100% acid free cotton-rag paper
20 x 20 inches
Edition of 25
$100

👈

“Anima/Animus: Corvus corax”
Archival pigment print on 100% acid free cotton-rag paper
16 x 16 inches
Edition of 25
$80

👉

The Thinking Behind the Charitable Sales Model

Art is no less vital today than it was millennia ago, when our ancestors painted on the walls of the caves that sheltered them. The best contemporary art still inspires empathy, induces catharsis, elevates our spirit, and feeds our hearts and minds.

But the relationship between art-making and human experience is complicated by economics. For over 2,000 years, art has been assigned a monetary or barter value. Given this long-established correlation, it is naive to decry the commodification of art; the artist, after all, must earn a living. But too often art is principally understood as an investment and the art world as an arm of the greater luxury market. As a result, artworks are reduced to status symbols, brands traded to display the owner’s wealth and social rank.

Like many other artists and writers, I am troubled by this warped appraisal of art’s elemental value. I am compelled to create, but the time I spend painting, drawing, writing, or otherwise creating precludes significant action in other spheres. How can my paintings, drawings, and prints, “fine art objects” traded in a luxury market, exist in accord with my ideology? More specifically, how can I earn a living and connect my creative work to worthy efforts?

In the fall of 2008, I decided to begin contributing a percentage of every art sale to nonprofit organizations that are working to redress environmental and social ails. By generating money for important causes through the sale of my artwork, I can act in proxy; the long hours in the studio can be connected to the spirit of the art and to the greater community. This charitable sales model is a concrete metaphor for the emotional and intellectual sustenance provided by the artwork itself.

How It Works

Whenever artwork is purchased, whether directly from the artist or through a gallery or other third party, a charitable contribution equal to 10% of the funds received by Christopher is made to a nonprofit organization working to tackle environmental or social challenges.