Chris Roberts-Antieau

Chris Roberts-Antieau began her career in art by walking out of an art class.

On her very first day in art-school, the instructor had given the class an assignment to draw an ink bottle. The other students drew literal, realistic sketches. Chris drew a blocky, childlike bottle that took up the whole page. The professor singled it out for mockery in front of the whole class, asking her, "Who told you you could draw?" Chris walked out and never looked back.

"Fabric Paintings"
Chris is known for her "fabric paintings" composed from freehand-cut cloth shapes, hung behind glass in hand-painted frames. The best folk art galleries across the country offer her work, which has also won major awards at the prestigious Ann Arbor and St. Louis Art Fairs, and the attention of HGTV and Mary Engelbreit's Home Companion Magazine.

Her compositions have the delightfully off-kilter feeling of children's drawings, and the subjects sometimes seem to be a child's choosing as well: "Playing With Dolls", "Bad Dog", or "Bug Jar". But like her better-known inspirations, Picasso, Miro, and Van Gogh, Chris takes the honesty, freedom, and new perspective of children's art to a new level. She doesn't just mimic a child's style—she applies a child's eye to adult realities, reminding viewers not to take themselves too seriously, and giving them a chance to remember again the wonder and joy that children find in the everyday.

"My vision of the world is joy-based," she says. "Even when awful things happen to me, I've found wonderful things along the way. That's what my art is about: the joy and wonder and humor that's all around us, every day."

"Table Manners" - fabric collage

24" x 30" plus frame - $2100

"Ray Charles" - fabric collage

21" x 29" - $1100

"Ladder to Heaven" - fabric collage

17" x 60" plus frame - $2700

Also in stock:

"Six Toed Cat"- $550

"Stretch Pants" - $$850

"Circus" - fabric collage

33" x 44"  - $2900