IceBear – Artist

Born in 1953, he spent most of his childhood in the care of Indian and Northern Affairs. The essence of what makes IceBear art has always been with him; as a small child, drawings were his only means of communication. His first public art commission, a paper collage “stained glass window” for his church, was completed at age 10. It remained in place until the church could afford to replace it with real stained glass.

Thanks to the foresight of an art teacher and funding from Indian and Northern Affairs, he attended the Toronto Artist’s Workshop. As a teenager, Chris supplemented governmental support by creating paintings that friends sold on city streets. After high school, he attended Sheridan College but left after one year to join the art department of the Hudson’s Bay Company. He soon moved on to further his practical education in various commercial art and design positions, including a stint at the venerable type house Typesettra, where he helped develop many of the fonts now found in your computer. He eventually opened his specialty design boutique. He moved to Vancouver in the early ’80s to continue as an independent designer specializing in unique assignments.

With his arrival on the West Coast and his acclimatization to the West Coast lifestyle, his early love for fine art started to re-assert itself. He moved to Vancouver Island in the early 90s. He gradually replaced his commercial work with paintings and sculptures, beginning with graphic styles that drew on his years of commercial line work. He progressed through realism and then to the amazing abstract and impressionistic visions that have become the hallmark of IceBear art.

IceBear’s huge public artworks (created between 1997 and 2001) were extensively covered by local media. He also received a 1999 Community Arts Award for the contribution his public art had made to the Capital region. At the time, it was noted that this award was the first time it had been given to a full-time artist, and it generally went to curators, gallery directors, or teachers.

Since then, IceBear art has appeared in exhibitions and has been placed in private and public collections in Europe, the United States, Asia, and Canada. View IceBear’s Chippewa art-inspired works below, or contact us to learn more.