Chris Saunders is an American artist, designer and illustrator based in Venice Beach, California. After getting a BFA in graphic design at Maine College of Art in Portland, Maine he moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career in animation and motiongraphics for commercial, tv and film. After having a near death experience in 2009, Chris found himself being compelled to create images that were pouring from his subconscious that explored themes of connectedness, abstraction, and psychedelic experience. Returning for his sixth release Saunders’ brings us his latest piece based off of his first ever mural White Tiger Mandala. Grab yours here and read on to find out more about Saunders’ newest image and more…
1x: Tell us a little bit about this piece…
Chris Saunders: This piece is based off the first mural I created in Los Angeles back in October of 2015.
1x: Was this piece part of a recent theme, series or show that you had?
Chris Saunders: This piece comes from a series of animal archetypes I have been creating over the last couple years.
1x: What materials were used to create this piece with?
Chris Saunders: This piece started from a drawing that evolved into a mural that then evolved into a cleaned up vector illustration to create the separations for the screen print.
1x: Is there anything immediate you would like us to highlight?
Chris Saunders: This print turned out exceptionally well. I am usually very critical with the details, but Frank and Roberta from InHouse did a great job as always and this print really reflects their quality of work.
1x: Tell us a little bit about your process, how the idea and execution come about for this piece?
Chris Saunders: I got commissioned to create a 55ft mural on the side of a karate dojo in Santa Monica and the owner originally wanted a lion. I had never done a mural before and I was pretty much scared shitless to do it. So I tried to come up with every excuse in the world not to do it, because I thought I wouldn’t be able to pull it off. I was literally losing sleep over it and so stressed out and in my head about it until one night I decided I was gonna pull the plug on it. After I fell asleep I had this vision of this Tiger and it came through so strong with such fire that I knew I had to go forward with it. I knew I had to attack that fear straight on or I wouldn’t grow at all as an artist. I think as artists we are always having to live on the edge of our fear with putting our work out there and constantly subjecting ourselves to criticism. I’ve learned that a certain amount of fear like this can be a good thing, and we need to attack it straight on. The image of the tiger basically jumped out at me and that is how it came about.
1x: How long did this piece take to complete?
Chris Saunders: About 2 weeks.
1x: What do you feel is unique about this piece compared to some of your other work?
Chris Saunders: It originated as a much larger piece so having to scale it down was somewhat challenging.
1x: Describe these piece in one gut reaction word.
Chris Saunders: Fearless.
1x: What are your plans for 2016? Any big shows or events coming up that you’d like to share?
Chris Saunders: I will be painting several murals up in Ojai Ca where I recently moved to, as well as Coachella and Murals in the Market in Detroit.
1xRUN: Where else can people find you?
Chris Saunders: Website – Instagram @chrissaundersart
-1xRUN