Chris Allen is a local artist who's created CD covers for bands and musicians, murals for events, business logos and tattoo designs.
Rift: When and why did you move to Minnesota?
Chris Allen: I moved here in 1999 to get my life back together and get treatment for drug and alcohol addiction. Since then, things have been going beautifully. I'm blessed to be breathing, considering at one point in my life I almost lost everything.
Rift: What drives you to create art?
CA: It's hard to explain to others, yet very easy for me to understand. Why does an emcee spit? Why does a DJ make new music from music already orchestrated? For me, I think it comes down to what talents people are given. My art is a gift and every artist has that gift to give people. It's not an option for me; if I choose not to do my art, then I'm giving the middle finger to the man upstairs and until I was 21, I did just that with the path my life was on. I have goals with my art and I need to get to work on them. I don't want to look back on the pages of my life and skip pages because they were lacking or boring.
Rift: What mediums do you currently work with and what other mediums would you like to work with?
CA: I work in all types of mediums. My main love has become acrylic paints for my life shows and paintings. Pencil and pen will always be really dope to use in the newborn process of a piece or sketch. I will rock cans, paints or whatever the project at the time calls for. Lately I've really been trying to go out of the box with different techniques and using the mediums separately.
Rift: Are you a full-time artist or do you have a day job as well?
CA: That's a funny question, no doubt. With the art I'm doing and my business, Inkproof, I'm up at all times of the day and night trying to get my art out there in different ways, outlets, or whatever it may be. I also work occasionally at a chemical dependency treatment center with kids who are unfortunately wearing the same shoes I wore growing up. The goal – and hopefully the outcome – of the sweat and time I put in with my art now is to have my art and Inkproof as a full-time gig in the future. Even though I'm not living completely off my art, sometimes it pays the rent and bills. The "artist's struggle" is definitely in my blood, but I don't wanna be one of these cats who builds a career from talking about how much he struggled and the bullshit he went through to get where he is. Everyone struggles; it's about how we deal with it.
Rift: What do you like about the Twin Cities art and music scene?
CA: I like the drive a lot of the artists have. Don't get me wrong – there are people who do music as well as art, but think they can just sit back and not bust their ass for what they get. That part of it makes me feel bad for those people, but it's all good. I'm really proud to be a part of the hip-hop and art scene. I think it's important for us to make a statement in some way.
Rift: Is our art and music scene lacking anything?
CA: I think it's lacking some individualism. There's definitely certain cats who do their thing and do it really well. As far as the art is concerned, I think there needs to be more organic designs and pieces coming out of the Twin Cities. There are some, but coming from DC and having friends in New York and Los Angeles who do similar things in the art arena, I really think individualism speaks very loudly.
Rift: Any rants you'd like to add?
CA: Not many. I suppose I could say our President can't speak publicly. Or we're in a country that asks the rich if they want seconds and tells the poor they don't deserve firsts. Oh shit. Sorry, those are political views. We won't go there.
www.inkproof.com |
