Christopher Rankin

Bexley, OH

chrisr@creativespot.com
www.crankinstudio.com

Education

1994  BFAColumbus College of Art & Design

Group Exhibitions

2009Ohio Art League

Selected Collections

Hilton Columbus

Artist Statement

Talent, complimented by a passion to create, sums up Chris Rankin.  He has been creating “stuff” since his parents first gave him the various tools to do so.  As a child, anything he could get his hands on was fair game to be part of his creative exploration, whether it was balsa wood, a crayon or oil pastel.  If it could be drawn, painted, nailed, molded or glued together something fun was going to be created.  Fifteen years later, Chris moved to Columbus, Ohio and was awarded a BFA from the Columbus College of Art and Design.  And now, 20 years after CCAD, Chris finds himself interested in two new tools as part of his creativity:  beeswax and fire. Two of the most natural substances known to man.   

“Encaustic,” as it’s called, dates back to early Egyptian times and is one of the oldest forms of painting know to exist. The technical definition of encaustic is:  using pigments mixed with hot wax that are burned in as an inlay. About seven years ago, Chris started exploring the encaustic medium, enjoying the versatility and freedom to work in a variety of styles and techniques.  He finds encaustic a great medium to work with because he’s exposing this unique medium to people for the first time in most cases.

This project was particularly challenging because of the nature of working with the liquid wax.  Part of the process includes blow torching the wax to fuse the top layer into the bottom layer.  On a flat surface this isn’t a problem, but when working on a sphere you have to be extra careful not to let the wax drip across the egg. It just took extra time and patience to be sure to be able to control the medium on the dimensional “canvas”.

 Chris is an active participant in the thriving arts community of Central Ohio.  He served on the Board of Directors for The Ohio Art League for three years.  And he displays his work throughout Central Ohio. Some of Chris’ work was recently purchased by the Hilton Hotel group as part of its corporate collection and was reproduced and put into 100 of their hotel rooms at the Short North (Columbus, Ohio) hotel.