Meet the Artist
Chad Chisholm
My works explore the complex interplay of memory, narrative, and identity, particularly within the context of adoption.
By combining imagery, text, and objects, I create visual narratives that delve into the nature of memory itself and the challenges of constructing a personal identity that is both rooted in the past and shaped by the present.
Our past can be both a source of strength and a cause of confusion. My work questions the construction of personal identity and the enduring power of ancestral heritage, even when severed by circumstance. As an adopted person, I am fascinated by the intricate relationship between memory and narrative. Diagnosed as a HSP (highly sensitive person), my inability to forget many memories is paradoxical, yet allows me to delve into a well of recollections that inform my art.
My work explores the ways in which our past can be both a source of inspiration and a source of pain, whether that is individually with a specific instance or as a collective cultural memory.
Bio
I began working in glass at the age of 13, when I asked my parents for lessons as a birthday gift. Starting with stained glass, making suncatchers and Christmas ornaments, my work was crafty and didn’t really say much. Growing into fusing and slumping, my work took on new life, but still lacked much substance but was great practice with the medium and built a strong foundation of not only handicraft and muscle memory, but in business as I began to sell my work in local stores.
All through school and college, I have been enamored with all kinds of artistic expression. Sculpting in bronze, hand building ceramics, intaglio printmaking, creative photography, painting in oil and acrylics, and drawing in charcoal and graphite are all tools that I incorporate into my work. I view myself as an artist who utilizes the right medium to convey the message I am intending, not an artist who is defined and confined by the medium in which I work. One of my teachers, Shannon Brunskill, left an impression on me with her insight “Why glass? Why this medium for this particular piece? Is it the right medium for what you’re trying to say?”
I graduated from UNC with a visual arts degree with an emphasis in drawing, a passion I have had my entire life and it serves me to conceptualize everything from 2D to 3D projects and even my commercial photography. A major turning point in my career was attending Preston Singletary and Joe Friend’s course at Pilchuck, which was to inform much of my future work. It was a course on your ancestry and personal narrative; an ancestry I had been severed from due to my adoption and it really forced me to consider and embrace my biological self. Joe offered me the sage words after I asked him about my unique situation: “No one can take your history from you; you carry generations of those before you inside yourself. You don’t have to ask permission. You cannot be denied all the things that had to happen to have you here today.”
After my course with Preston and Joe, I had the opportunity to work with the incredible De la Torre brothers; a dynamic duo known for their multi-sensory and materialled works. They reinforced the mantra of utilizing the materials that best suited what it is you wanted to say as an artist. I was taught this lesson as they glued rolling dice to the back of a blown glass turtle who had flames coming out an exhaust pipe and wheels for legs, drizzling it all with a clear-coat resin while sipping tequila and playing cheerful music. We also had the opportunity to learn about public works and instillations, tapping into the vast knowledge of the De la Torre Brother’s and their combined artistic histories and skills.
My journey is just that: ever continuing and growing. The cumulative aspect of knowledge makes me eager to experience and learn all the time. I also find travel really shapes me as a person; both through a world view as well as inspiration for artistic expression. Thanks for taking the time to read this description!