The Unlikely Artist; A Chat with Chris Madsen

When you look at the feminine, sultry, and strikingly occultist images he creates, you'd never suspect Chris Madsen grew up on a ranch in Richfield, Utah or rode bulls in the rodeo. That's what makes him a truly surprising artist—the unlikely artist. So, how did a cowboy from rural Utah become one of Salt Lake's most respected photographer/digital artists? In his own words, "A series of bizarre circumstances."

"Art made me reexamine my entire life, pushed me in a different direction."

Until about nine years ago, Chris cared about little other than driving expensive cars, getting into bar fights, and taking the hottest women home with him. Then in the late '00s, Chris came to Salt Lake City to start up a digital media business with two friends. Business was a success, but Chris felt empty.

It was during this time that he began looking into the world of erotic photography on MySpace, and thought he'd try his hand at it—mostly for the allure of being surrounded by beautiful women.

"I thought, I'll shoot like sexy PlayBoy stuff, it'll be fun and I'll be surrounded by hot women," Masden tells S&A.

Shooting sexy PlayBoy -esque images didn't turn out as Madsen's forte'. By his own admission, he was terrible at it. He started noticing other types of nude art, the kind that didn't sexualize the model, but instead takes the viewer to somewhere deeper within their own psyche. It changed the way he thought about art, women, and the human experience.

"Art made me reexamine my entire life, pushed me in a different direction."

Late on a Friday evening, Chris packed up his office at the digital media business and disappeared from the conventional life. He sold his house, moved into a dumpy studio apartment, and started making art. His first project— an album cover he designed for a friend's small metal band— got him invited to a gallery.

"At first I was going to find an image online [for the album cover] and tweak it, but when I couldn't find one that fit the concept I was going for, I thought, I'm totally going to shoot this myself."

Women are amazing, powerful, divine, but it seems like the guys who say they're feminists are a little off, like they're trying too hard. I'm just trying to be a good, respectful person

When his friend saw the cover Chris made, he decided to show it to Derek Dyer of the Utah Arts Alliance. Dyer was impressed. he told Chris to bring some work into the Gallery of Contemporary Art where he sold his first piece. From there his career took off. Chris now travels all over the western states, selling his dark, and deeply emotional images at festivals.

But what do they mean? What are these brooding images trying to portray? Although, packed with emotion, it's hard to pin down the overall message as a viewer. And getting an answer about their meaning from Chris Madsen is futile. He seems as baffled by them as we are.

I don't like the typical model. I like to see hips and curves.

"My work is really just a scatter of emotions. I have a hard time explaining what I do. I want to honor the feminine and show the power of women. Even if some of my subjects seem a little melancholy, I still want to show them as strong—in a non-sexual, non-Playboy way.

I love the concept of goddesses and witches, the divine feminine. I get a lot of influences from early french impressionists, the rubenesque, imperfect bodies of the time."

Chris Madsen's latest aspiration is to create more images that are blurred, textured and imperfect because as he says, "there's no reason images have to be perfect. Nothing is perfect, we're not perfect."

You can see more of Chris' work on Instagram, or on his new website, Burning Paper Hearts/The Fine Art of Chris Madsen where he sells his work and now T-shirts!

My work is really just a scatter of emotions. I have a hard time explaining what I do.