Christopher M. Paints A Visual Feast By JAMIE ELLIN FORBES Born in 1975 in Oakland, California, Christopher Mangum (who paints under the name Christopher M) always had a penchant for art. “In the very beginning, in high school, I took a class in my senior year in which I prepared a portfolio of drawings and assignments and won the competition which resulted in a scholarship to art school. “Once I got to art school and began studying painting and drawing from life,” he said. “I was hooked. Since then I have never wanted to do anything else.” Educated at the noted Academy of Art University in San Francisco, he graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Illustration in 2000. He earned awards and honors from the Academy for his sketchbook, figure painting, landscapes and still lifes as well as from the San Francisco Society of Illustrators.
FINE ART: You have a very classically executed approach to art, whether you make it an abstraction or an impression. CHRIS: When I was in art school, I took every class for drawing figures that I could. I knew that I would need to do very accomplished 24 • Fine Art Magazine • Fall 2009
Opus One
drawings before I could deconstruct them and play around. If you can’t draw, none of that good stuff is going to happen. I am always thinking of different ways to make the imagery more exciting with color, texture and brushwork. Lately, color has been very much a fixation for me. I am experimenting with color to get patterns or a different emotion from what I’ve done in other paintings.