Confessions Of An Artaholic

My name is Chris, and I'm an artaholic. No matter how much art I do, I always want more. When I am not painting, I am thinking about it. I find myself looking at everything with an artist's eye. Whatever I see, becomes a work of art to me. Even the books I read are about art. In my spare time, I write about art and do life drawing studies.

I have have been clean for a few hours, but soon I will have paint and pastel all over my clothes again. Being an artaholic makes it hard to find a wage-paying job and I seem to have lost my desire to get one anyway. Since I started painting I have lost my steady income and have been hanging out with other artaholics. They encourage me to continue my addiction and enable my habits. I sell my paintings to afford my paraphenalia such as paintbrushes. Then I just paint more. It is a vicious cycle.

Plein air painting has been my art of choice this spring and it is an intense experience. Painting the changing light gives me such a rush. My friends and family have tried to talk me out of it, but then they caught me painting nocturnes in the dark. I snuck out of a hotel room one night to paint in the rain on a city street at 3am.

artaholic Christopher Reid uses art in broad daylight with no shame!

I was painting a river from a park recently and a guy sat down on a bench and began smoking crack. He probably looked at me and thought, “Man! That guy has an art addiction!” He may have felt sorry for me, knowing I would never kick the habit. He has a dealer and I have an art supplier. He goes into the projects for his fix and I go to the museum. We both sound incoherent to most people, but he is a much better dancer.

One rainy day my girlfriend caught me alone in a room with pastel all over me with a week's worth of stubble! I made up all kinds of excuses, but when art takes over your life, you can forget to shave, sleep, and even eat. Your clothes are stained with color and there is pigment under your fingernails. Raise your hand if you are an artaholic who has used their fingers to adjust an acrylic, watercolor, or oil painting. I have laughed at fellow artists who had pastel or charcoal smudges on their faces, until I looked in the mirror and faced my own addiction.

Every time I manage to cut back on my art,  someone compliments me, I win another award, or I see another artist doing it. I fall right back off the wagon and am frantically priming new surfaces in the garage where nobody can see me.

Reid's art paraphenalia out in the open

What worries me most about my addiction is that I have helped others become addicted too. Through teaching art workshops I have practically put the pastel or brush in their hands! Some of those I have influenced are now drawing and painting daily and getting high from creating beautiful paintings and drawings. Once they see what art can bring out of each of us, they are hooked. What would this world become if everyone stopped fighting and began creating beautiful art instead? There would be total chaos!

Are there any other artaholics in the room today? Please stand up and share your experiences too. I am, up early writing another artificate blog when I should be sleeping or working a regular job. I know some recreational users and they are somehow able to indulge in art without letting it take over their lives. How do they do it? For me, artaholicism is very hard to kick. The problem is... I have no intention of ever quitting...

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Christopher Reid is an award-winning artist working in pastel, watercolor, acrylic,and charcoal. He paints all different subjects from coastal landscapes to wildlife to portraits. View his work at reidsart.com or email [email protected]