By Erika Schmitt

Parents have the ability to inspire and encourage their children to be whatever it is they aspire to be. In the case of Worcester native Chris Melanson, it was the absence of his parents that truly defined his path in life: creating art, in many different forms. Chris’s mother had drowned herself in the dark evils that the night life can offer and eventually the law caught up with her. Chris’s father was not present in his life, so it was Chris’s grandmother who eventually assumed the parental position in his life. In hopes of learning something about the mysterious figure that was his mother, he went rummaging through old boxes of hers, luckily stumbling upon her old drawings and poems.

About his mother, who passed away when he was just 15, Chris explains, “She was so talented but she was such a tragic figure.” He was able to ~ figuratively speaking ~ open a book that held his mother’s innermost thoughts and her own personal therapy. He admired her artist interpretation and her creativity and decided to give it a whirl himself.

It is because of those?journals that Chris now does what he does ~ and he does it well. When he was a teenager, he started his own?journals with sketches and writings and has evolved into an artist who takes pride in his work.

Chris expresses his yearning to be continuously making art: “Painting and drawing I do without a choice, it just comes out of me, my poetry, that is my own outlet to better understand myself, seeing my writing breaks down who I am. One thing I have always wondered about myself is, ‘Am I a true artist or not?’ Art, for me, is creativity. I always want to add something new to contemporary art, and it is not easy these days, especially with painting.”

Chris wants his art to invoke emotion in people. He hopes that through the many different mediums he uses, someone can become inspired to dive deeper into his or her own life, struggles and beauty, to better understand him/herself and the world in general. He describes his own work as being somewhat “trippy.” His paintings are very abstract, allowing those who view them to interpret the art however they want ~ and feel.

Chris is currently writing a fiction piece titled “Five Streets of Tragedy,” which is loosely based on his own life. Chris describes his writing process for this current piece as “…picking up bits and pieces of people and taking the experiences in my life and turning them into a fictional piece of work.”

Chris’s artwork was recently on exhibition in New York City at the Mandi Gallery. He sold 14 pieces out of his collection and donated 30 percent of his profits to a local charity. As far as what the future holds for this talented young artist? Chris is extremely hopeful.

Check out www.cjmcreates.com, which Chris both created and manages, where you can view an extensive library of his writing, check out his artwork, read more about his life, and learn just what exactly Chris will do next with his talent.