From early childhood to a senior year in college, some people struggle with what they want to be when they grow up. We all have interests and hobbies, but the reality is that not everyone can have an occupation in their own “field” of dreams.
Chris Kahler, associate art professor and graduate coordinator in the art department, is fortunate in this sense. He has pursued his dream of becoming an artist and has been growing with the field ever since.
“I knew around the age of 8 or so that being an artist would be a goal of mine, but it was not the future my parents hoped for me,” Kahler said. “They knew it would be tough. In my freshman year of high school, I focused so much on my art homework that my parents thought it would be a good idea to avoid taking art classes until my senior year.”
Kahler’s father is an architect and his mother has practiced watercolor painting nearly her whole life. The artist remembers weekend field trips to art museums and galleries as standard while growing up in Milwaukee. His parents understood the difficulties Kahler could face all too well.
“My father was president of the Milwaukee Art Museum when I was in high school. He had the rare opportunity to sit down with world famous artist Georgia O’Keefe,” Kahler said. “He wondered if she had any advice for me. Her response was roughly, ‘Don’t do it, this is the worst life.’”
Kahler was faced with a dilemma; should he follow O’Keefe’s advice or should he follow his dreams?
“As a compromise I agreed to go to Ohio Wesleyan as an English major,” Kahler said. “However, I insisted on the first day of registration that the painting professor had to let me into a drawing class, even though I had not taken the prerequisite class.”
Kahler said the professor was reluctant at first but after a look over his portfolio, the professor changed his mind. The professor soon became one of Kahler’s mentors and taught him painting techniques, which became his favorite discipline to date.
Kahler switched his major to fine arts in his second year of college.
Other than mentors, Kahler keeps an ever-growing list of influences that show through his artwork.“The great thing about art is that you can never know enough,” Kahler said. “I am constantly learning, and I hope I never lose the capacity to keep an open mind. The desire to learn is only part of the process. Talent comes from hard work and dedication. I am just plain curious, but mainly my work comes from observing structures and systems in every -day life.”
Kahler said his fascination with mortality and the inner workings of the body has guided him to research cybernetics, physics, mapping and systems theories, just to name a few, that can be seen in his paintings.
One goal of Kahler was to be reviewed in a national or international art magazine. This dream was fulfilled on Feb. 5 when he was reviewed in the international publication Art in America for a solo show in St. Louis.
“This has given me a big boost, and I am getting ready for a solo show in the spring of 2011 down in Florida,” Kahler said. “I have been fortunate to have a gallery represent my work the past seven years. I am fortunate to have things on the horizon most of the time, so I focus on making work all year round. An upcoming show only puts me on a more demanding work schedule to make sure everything is up to what the gallery is expecting.”
Kahler jokes that once you have graduated no one is going to call you up on Sunday night and ask if you painted this past weekend.
“This is a career that only gets results because you work really hard and you are self-motivated,” Kahler said.