MILWAUKEE — The new Pfister Artist-in-Residence is working to find '"imaginary solutions" to life's problems.
Christopher T. Wood describes himself as a 'pataphysical illustrator. Essentially, it's the science of finding imaginary solutions.
"Solutions that are kind of beyond rational expected solutions to problems, and that type of thinking is something that I feel is very necessary in the world right now," Wood said. "The time and the space that were used to thinking in - how can I kind of break that barrier."
It's a difficult concept but it focuses around breaking through artificial limitations to see exponential possibilities and ideas.
Wood, 43, illustrates this through the use of graphite and various shading techniques.
"I was captivated by the infinite values between black and white and how much I could do with that," he said.
The artist in residence program shows off local up and coming artists. It gives them a place to display their work, and it's a working studio. Hotel guests and the general public are invited to view the exhibit for free. The artist in residence will commit at least 30 on-site hours per week to the gallery. They will also be at four gallery nights.
Wood draws a new picture every day from something that inspires him. People can leave him messages under his door or type a poem or a few sentences on his typewriter he has inside the Pfister.
He considers the body of work he is creating to be one large drawing made up of smaller individual pieces. The piece of art is always growing as Wood creates more. He hopes that this piece of art will be developed for years to come as others pick up where he left off.
"The drawings will keep on coming one way or another. I'll continue making them in ethernity afterward," he said.
Wood will be at the Pfister for one year. Afterwards, he hopes that his drawings will be distributed to people throughout the world in order to carry on his message.
The previous artist in residence was Nykoli Koslow. He was the first transgender artist to be part of the program.
