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Artist Profiles - Chris Turner

Article 85 of 89     


This article first appeared in the "Artist Profiles" column in the April 12, 2006 issue of the The Low Down to Hull and Back News.External Link Reprinted with permission. Search complete list of Low Down Articles.

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Getting under the skin of creativity

by Catherine Joyce

Chris Turner is an explorer. He came to art through his early love of science, continually reaching to understand how things work - that curiosity to "get under the skin" of life and creativity.

Growing up he was easily bored, his mind needing to be challenged eight to 10 hours a day. He discovered computers in high school and never looked back. With an honours degree in Mathematics in Computer Science (1990) from Waterloo University, he has become a highly skilled and creative software designer with widespread experience and expertise in OO design, multimedia programming and teaching. From this springboard he has gone on to explore all the other passions of his life - writing, travel, music and song writing, meditation, holistic health, and most importantly, art.

Artist Profiles
Pine lake by Chris Turner.

His hunger to know has taken him on extensive trips, cycling with a university friend through Europe upon graduation, then trekking alone through Asia to experience first-hand new landscapes and cultures. Later he would explore Turkey, Israel and Eastern Europe. Travel offers him the transformation of the self that comes from being immersed in the unknown. From detailed diaries of his travels, he began to experiment with fiction writing, inspired by Tolkien, Robert Howard and Jack Vance to create stories of quest and fantasy

"In earlier years I used to wonder at the constant change in my interests but I came to realize that creative people are hungry for life. They commit totally, absorb and move on it is the process of the search that matters."

In Thailand and India Chris steeped himself in the spiritual practices of Buddhist monks and Yogis, who meditate for hours on end. Upon his return to Canada, he had been profoundly changed. "We all live in a dread state, worried about finances and barriers to success. Meditation allows me to work with a clear mind - to just do it, letting all else fall away".

Now settled along the Lake Bernard Road, he has found a daily rhythm in his painting. He does computer work when he needs to but seeks the flow of intense periods of concentration when the paintings seem to paint themselves. "I wrap myself in the stillness. I become a channel. The goal is always to keep my mind clean, aware and alert - to be able to really see."

Landscape is his passion. And the search for beauty and meaning is his motivation - "to create beauty is a gift." From a deep well of images born of his travels and his love for the Canadian landscape, Chris paints to capture that fleeting glimpse of beauty.

"We all long to share what we see. But we must seize the opportunity because whatever energy you put out in your life, that's what you're drawing from the universe. Your thoughts are a mirror of who you want to be. So if you're not reaching for what has meaning for you, then you're stuck, feeling half-alive."

Chris Turner digs "deep inside the core of landscape", getting under the skin of what compels him in his search to know and to understand.

(You can see his work at the Marche des Artisans, on his website: www.innersky.ca, or call him at his studio, 459-2841)

Goodbye from Catherine Joyce

With this week's column am saying goodbye to a wonderful year of providing artist profiles and memories of 'The Way We Were' in the Gatineau Hills. The experience has offered me a unique opportunity to celebrate and share what I love.

For all those artists I have not managed to meet or storytellers I have not yet interviewed, please carry on the tradition. Celebrate what we have created in our rich communities. Write your memories, share your artistic journeys. Reach out to your neighbours and deepen the bonds that have made the Gatineau Hills the landscape of the heart we all cherish.

Thank you for the privilege of giving voice to your lives.