Getting to Know the Locals: Chris Beetow

11/29/2018

Chris Beetow is an illustrator best known for her pet portraits. Chris does commissioned illustration and is a professor at the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design (MIAD).

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Q: Please give a short description of yourself and your work.

A: I am illustrator who shares my day with 4 cats, 2 dogs, 6 chickens and 2 parakeets. When I’m not outside doing something dangerous and ill-advised, I’ll probably be working in my studio. I’ve had the fun fortune of having some of my animal portraits go viral a few times online and since then I’ve been consistently working on private portrait commissions for wonderful and obsessed pet owners around the globe who really respond to my playful and lighthearted interpretations of their beloved pets. While my formal training has been in painting, I now work almost exclusively in Adobe Illustrator for commissioned work and I have recently been experimenting with a program called Procreate for iPad.

Q: What first piqued your interest in art?

A: I can’t really identify one moment; it was just something I’ve always done. I grew up in a more rural environment in a era when children actually went outside to play and invented things to do inside for entertainment. For me, drawing was a chance to visualize on paper the things I imagined I was doing while roaming the fields and woods everyday: slaying dragons, battling cowboys on the range, building mini Roman villas out of shale by the pond in the backyard– you know– normal little girl stuff.

Q: What inspires your art?

A: That is really hard to say exactly because so many things can inspire me to make a piece. Sometimes a song will really move me, and I need to translate that feeling in a visual way. Something as simple as seeing how bright the full moon is on a snowy night can generate a series of work too. In general, I suppose it is the need to visualize strong emotion that is drives some of my work.

Q: Whose work do you follow?

A: I am really fascinated by the work of Edwin Landseer a 19th century British painter. The degree of empathy in his work, in some pieces, literally moves me to tears. His painting “The Old Shepherd’s Chief Mourner” gets me every time I see it. For contemporary illustration, I greatly admire the work of Noma Bar and Olly Moss for their amazing wit and stunningly strong imagery.

Q: What are you working on now?

A: I have been working for some time on private commissions and that accounts for much of my studio time. At the moment I am working on fun personal project in which I am illustrating portraits of animals that are national symbols from countries around the world. It is a fairly daunting project of about 195 pieces when finished but I like a challenge. It is really interesting to do research on each country and find ways to bring into each piece something unique to each culture.

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Q: What work of yours are you most proud of?

A: I’m not sure I can identify any particular piece, but I would say I am more humbled and honored when someone I make artwork for is truly moved by it and shares with me how important the work is to them. That is really the best feeling in the world.

Q: Do you have a favorite knick-knack in your studio?

A: I hate to admit this but Eric Cartman from the show “South Park” is pretty much my spirit animal. To honor this shameful fact, I have a small collection of Cartman figures, with my favorite one being Eric as “AWESOM-O”. In addition to my Cartmans, my Golden Girls bobble head figures rank pretty high on my favorites list.