Joey Bates: There’s stuff that I absolutely love and then there is stuff that I’m like, ugh.

Chris Crites: (laughs) That’s true for anybody’s work. Everybody has his or her favorites; even me with my own work. I finish stuff and I’m like ugh, why?

J: One of the things that I love and at other times don’t, is your color choice, your palette. When preparing for a series, do you set out what the particular palette will be, or do you determine the palette based on the individual reference images? How do you come to your color decisions?

C: It’s really an ongoing experiment. I choose colors individually for every piece. I used to do two at a time. For a while I was doing two in the same color scheme. I just didn’t like how that worked. You can use the same color scheme over and over again, but every image has different contrast, so it’s going to change the overall effect. I pick my darkest color first and work my way up to the lightest, then I test out little swatches. I think, oh that’s working, or no I don’t want to do that. I look at the photo and ask myself “what should the white be in my painting?” I’ve got tons of these sheets, just color splotches. I’ve got a few pages in my portfolio. I don’t refer back to them, but I could. I still do some paintings in the same color scheme, like this one (the piece, behind Chris, on the wall) is the same as the big one from my show that ends today, actually, in San Francisco. This guy wanted to buy this, but it already sold, so he asked for one with similar colors. I know these colors work, so I’ll go ahead and do the same color scheme. I’ve already messed up. I chose the wrong green on accident, but it will still work

.J: Have you ever considered or explored using a much more natural palette?

C: Not really; some. I guess that guy in the October show, the front view, life size guy, that was in a more neutral earthy tone (see “Great Depression 1930s”). That was more natural, but I like the effect of bright colors on the bag, the substrate, they just pop off. I don’t mix any of my colors, I’m using just pure liquid acrylic. I guess I’m drawn to the bright colors, it adds a kind of neon tackiness… I guess that’s part of my style. I’m drawn to the bright colors. It really electrifies them. If I were to paint that in neutral colors, it would just be like, oh, all right. The other big one I did, it’s more neutral, and it just isn’t as interesting. It falls flat. It just doesn’t really jump out.

J: You’ve always depicted predominantly criminal or destructive imagery. Why?

C: Just something I’m drawn to. I guess the mug shots, you know, I can remember back when they used to have wanted posters up, mug shots, in the post office, and I always liked to look through those as a kid. You know, seeing them up on the wall and wondering what the deal was with that, what people were wanted for; I remember being fascinated by that. Probably in 1996 or so I got a book by Sean Tejaratchi who also does Crap Hound, which is an amazing thing. They’re zines basically with all sorts of imagery. Each one has three themes. He also did this book called Death Scenes. It’s really awful; I don’t think you want to look through it… unless you want to. But it has mug shots. These were the first ones I saw since I started drawing these in 1996 and I just really enjoyed them. In 1999 I tore up a bag and actually painted the first four mug shots in acrylic, in five colors and just loved the way it stuck; destructive imagery as well (see “first four” image). It’s just kind of the whole gawkers block thing. If you see a car crash and you’re on the road and everybody’s looking, that’s the morbid fascination people have. We’re all so close to death that we’re all fascinated or repulsed by it. I don’t really know. I’m just attracted to… I guess…destructive imagery. Because the guns can be seen as, well, they’re a power symbol. I can really provoke a response, cause people are either pro gun, anti gun, or just ambivalent; but it still gets a response. Painting it that way, in a different light, it’s still just an object, but I can make it “beautiful” and still get a weird response from people. The mug shots, I don’t know. My fascination with history and just wondering what these people’s past was. What drove them to that point and also not knowing who they are, or really anything about them besides what their charge was. At that point you still don’t really know if they are guilty or not, just that they’ve been picked up and accused of something. Sometimes you can tell from the look in their face that they’re pretty damn guilty of something, but sometimes you have no clue. It’s just a nice mystery for me to explore.

J: So, these mug shots are taken beforehand, but you label each one as whatever they’ve been picked up for?

C: Exactly. Often times there have been a bunch of mug shots where I didn’t know what the charge was. At times I just make them up. I have a list of charges from certain periods of time, like what the nomenclature was, like petit larceny instead of petty larceny and things like that. I’ll assign a crime if I need to.

J: Do you have any feelings about implicating these people?

C: Not really, because it’s my art. I’m taking them out of context and since they are images from the past I’m not too worried about associating an individual with a charge. It’s just my art. I don’t really think about their feelings. It’s what I do, not what they did.J: Do you think they would hold as much power if you were to work from mug shots that have been taken as recently as last year?

C: Well the difference is, would it be known people, like celebrities, or anonymous people from now? The reason I don’t paint current mug shots is they’re all pretty boring. You can still find pretty wacky ones. People send them to me all the time. There was this guy, I think he was an Aryan nations member and meth dealer, or something, he had the funniest tattoos all over his face, like swastikas and stuff, and he was all beaten up. It was a pretty amazing image, but some of them are just boring now. They’re digital now and usually just face shots. There’s just not much to it. In the time period I focus on, the 1890s to the 1950s, people dress so much nicer. They have greater outfits; they’re looking really sharp and dapper. They have hats or their hair is done. They’re a lot more interesting than what people look like now. Most mug shots I find online now people are in just a t-shirt or fat, not very interesting. Looking at the thirties and forties, you have the Great Depression, World War II; it’s a totally different world. There wasn’t as much media, you had newspapers and magazines, but people were connected in different ways. I like the buffer of history and recycling images.

J: When I do my portraits I look for specific bits or things that really capture my attention. Do you have specific qualities that you look for in the mug shots that you select?

C: I must, I absolutely do. I’d have a difficult time articulating what that would be. In certain pieces I want the person to be very engaging. I did the side shot of a guy for the Roq la Rue: I did the front view of him for my show this past October (at Rock Dement). It went to Miami for the art fairs and sold there. That guy was staring directly into the camera and his face was so worn. That reference image instantly caught my attention. As soon as I saw that picture I said, “I’m painting this.” Other mug shots, the ones I get from the archives…yeah, it’s just depends. I don’t know exactly what it is, but it’s got to be an image that interests me since I’m going to be staring at it for several hours. I have to be able to see something in it; a slight expression, messed up hair, or a black eye, it’s really going to give it more of a story. It’s not just a person, it’s their look that makes me ask questions about who they are, who they were.

J: There are a number of similarities between you and me, the way we work, and our obsessive-compulsive nature. Do you have other obsessive-compulsive tendencies that occur in your day-to-day life?

C: I used to in grade school, middle school, and maybe in high school. Certain things in my room would have to be in their exact spot. I’d have to make sure my alarm clock was here, my wallet was here and my keys were over there (gesturing). Sometimes I’d go to bed then turn the light right back on to make sure they were where I thought they were supposed to be. I got over that. But I’ll still leave the house, lock up, and go back to make sure the stove is off, and of course it’s off. I’ll remember that I turned it off, but I’d have to go and check. I guess that’s about the only thing that’s still there. My wife would probably have different opinions on that. We’ve been together for 22 years this year. She knows. I do obsess about things. Since I work at home, I’m here all day; I talk to myself, I sing to myself a lot. I get stuck on songs. For a couple of days I was stuck on a Pixie’s song (starts singing in a high pitched voice) “I’ve got a broken face, uh huh, uh huh.” That’s one part of it. I kept singing that over and over again, for a couple days and it was making Natania bust up laughing. I did it the other day and she said, “Oh no, not that again.”I will obsess about songs and things.

J: In this question I was going to mention the piece: Cocaine, Morphine, Australia 1936. The hair in particular shows your Obsessive Compulsive tendencies. I love that piece.

C: Thanks. Yeah. I left out one color. It got to the point where I was running out of time. I’ve done it a couple of times where I’ve left just one color out and let the bag be that one color. In that piece it seemed to work.

J: Has that been intentional or is that an end of process decision?

C: End of process. I did a portrait of a cat for a friend of mine. I was painting their three cats and half way through the second one, I was like, “No, I’m not going to do that color.” I did that for another piece in the Roq La Rue show. It didn’t work out as well.

J: So when you say that a lot of these are still experiments in terms of what happens in the end… we’ve talked about it before… that when we sit down to do a portrait that we’re just fumbling around until it…

C: Pretty Much!

J: You have an idea in your head of what it’s going be. Once you’ve laid out those colors you have an idea, but you really don’t know until the end.

C: Absolutely Not. Especially the piece I’ve just started (see the image “in progress”). I know it’s going to be the same colors as this piece (see Petit Larceny”), but it’s not going to look like that. The contrast is totally different. I don’t know until I’ve got that light to dark sequence. Until my brightest color is fully in, I can’t see what the end result is going to be. At the end it’s like “Oh, Ok. Well that worked” or “Damn it, I really screwed that up.” Sometimes, on commissions, I will go with a color scheme I’ve used before since I know it “works.” I don’t like taking risks on commissioned work. I like going with something I know is going to work. I’ll just go at it.

J: The big stuff is new. How long have you been working on it?

C: I think I started them in August or September for the October show and it really evolved from that until now for the January show. There are plenty more of those coming. I’ve got a lot of ideas.

J: Have you thought about going even bigger?

C: I’m going to glue a couple of them together. I have a show in August, in Portland. I schedule too much stuff usually and it ends up biting me in the ass. I didn’t give myself enough time for the January show, but it ended up working out just fine. I keep stressing myself out. I was trying not to book anything for this year. I canceled a show in Portland, Oregon last year, right after deepwater horizon. The gallery wanted me to paint all these nudes and I was getting so freaked out. I said the nudes have no meaning for me I can’t do it. They contacted me and wanted me to do a show this year and I said, “Well, I’ve been wanting to work on a series of war images for a long time.” It’s not something that I’m going to pitch to a gallery, but they loved the idea. I’m excited about it. I’m going to do some really large mushroom clouds, some really large disturbing images, and I’ve got a really great idea for a painted sculpture thing.

J: Have you thought about exploring more three-dimensional work? I know about the bird…

C: Yeah. (Laughs)

J: It wasn’t so successful.

C: No, no, it was not. Thanks for being honest.

J: But I’ve also seen the plush doll figures.

C: Those are things I did when I had a show at OK OK, (now Ambach & Rice) years ago. I have wanted to sculpt the mug shots then paint them, but I just haven’t gotten around to it. Like screen-printing, I want to explore, because I could do the same image in multiple colors. I just haven’t taken the time or made the time to do it. I’d love to do some 3d work. For the show in August I intend to do at least one large piece, which will be paper based, but still it’s going to be new and different for me.

J: It’s going to be paper based? Paper-mach e’?

C: I’m not going to tell you anything more than that. I’m really excited about it. Whether it works out or not, we’ll see, but I think it’s a really good idea. I don’t want to… Give it to anybody else! (laughs)

J: Why Portraits?

C: That’s a very good question. I don’t know. I’ve been obsessed with mug shots; getting back to the obsessive compulsive. It’s something that interests me. I guess it’s that human connection. Beats landscapes… I don’t really know. I’m sure there’s a big reason there. I haven’t figured it out. I’m not that big on people, but I just like painting them.

J: What is your goal in art making?

C: It’s pretty selfish. It’s something that I enjoy doing. It’s not like I have a goal. It’s what I enjoy doing. I like looking at them and making them. How’s that for selfishness? It’s all about me!

J: I’ve said that myself. Being an artist is a very selfish endeavor. A lot of it is locking ourselves in and doing what we want.

C: Exactly. If you’re an honest artist doing what you do, you’re doing it for yourself. Otherwise you’re a commercial artist and you’re making a product for somebody else. I paint for myself. I paint what I want to see. I’m so fucking fortunate that people like it and I guess there’s a market for it. With the exception of commissions I don’t ever paint anything thinking it’s going to sell. I paint what I want to and luckily it’s working out.

J: Tell me about someone who has influenced you.

C: Actually, my first influence was my grandmother, my dad’s mother. She has always painted. She’s completely self-taught, but amazing. She does watercolors of wildflowers and things she finds. These things are so lifelike that you could pick them off the paper. They’re incredible, but she has always been so self cautious about it. She does it for herself, and won’t show them anywhere. She took a few pieces to get framed, which is strange for her, the frame shop wanted to give her an art show. She said, “No, I will not do that.” I guess her whole life she had always heard from her husband, “That’s a waste of time,” “Why bother doing that?” My Dad didn’t really get it when I was growing up and wanted to be an artist. He was like, “That’s pointless, why bother?” Since then he’s cool with it. As long as I’m happy, he’s happy. I guess from their perspective art had no value. They’re from a poor southern farm family. He didn’t understand the enjoyment that she got out of it. She’s always felt so self-cautious about art, thought it was worthless, but she enjoys doing it. She just doesn’t want to share it. It is all for herself. She’s really good.

J: Do you have any of her flowers?

C: I do. Yeah, my dad stole a bunch one time. So we…uh…yeah (laughs). She wouldn’t give them away or anything, so he took a bunch out of her watercolor pad and he framed them all up.  

Thank you Chris!

To view more of Chris’s work visit: http://www.bagpainter.com

This month Chris will have some work in the new group show: Transformation(s) at SAM Gallery, opening March 10th, 5 - 7pm, through April 8. For more info visit: http://www.seattleartmuseum.org/visit/visitRSG.asp

Thanks to Amanda Michele Dellinger for her help in editing