Christopher Hartshorne

Brain Be Like

Gouache on Bristol board

“Inspired by graffiti found in a public bathroom stall and how you can feel disjointed and torn like a collage.”

— Christopher Hartshorne

About the artist

Christopher Hartshorne

American

My name is Christopher Hartshorne. I identify as a queer printmaker and painter. I grew up in rural New Jersey. I have been a landscaper, a dishwasher, a tour guide, a museum educator, a waiter(for only one night), a receptionist, a professor, and a teaching artist. After winning a bookmark contest in the fourth grade I became fully committed to creating and sharing my artwork (It depicted fish reading a book entitled "Sea Life"). I was afraid to become an artist because the message from my parents was "make money and make sure you have health insurance" - hence all the jobs I described in the beginning. After attending art school - receiving a BFA in Illustration from The Columbus College of Art and Design and an MFA in printmaking from Tyler School of Art - I found people like me who believed in themselves as artists and convinced me that I had a right to be one too.

My woodcuts have been exhibited at The Philadelphia Museum of Art, The William Penn Foundation, The Woodmere Art Museum, The Art Institute of Philadelphia, The Delaware Art Museum, The Romanian Academy in Rome, and The Fleisher Art Memorial Wind Challenge series. I have been a fellow at the Center For Emerging Visual Artists and also with The New Courtland Artist Program. I taught at the Rhode Island School of Design, Tyler School of Art, and in many public school connected art programs throughout Philadelphia, including The Mural Arts Program, The Arthur Ross Gallery at the University of Pennsylvania, The Print Center and The Philadelphia Museum of Art. I have completed two artist residencies at The Oregon College of Art & Craft (2018) and as The Sylvia J. Smith Artist in Residence at Dickinson College (2019). I currently live in Bellingham, Washington and teach at Western Washington University.