The art of Aaron Chine
Taking to Aaron Chine is an inspiration.
Aaron Chine in his Warren apartment and art gallery.
Aaron Chine in his Warren apartment and art gallery.
That's because the energetic 30-year-old artist is living out his dream, and loving every minute of it. His joy and passion for his work, his art and the hope he has for his future comes across vividly as he talks about his upcoming show.
The Austintown native will host his second art show this year in a downtown Warren gallery that he rents on Saturday from 9 to 11 p.m. The show includes sculptures, paintings and drawings, a departure from his show earlier this year, which he says had a more political spin.
"I wanted to show some versatility," he said.
Much of the work in this show features ocean and space creatures and scenes.
"I've always been fascinated by deep-sea jellies and leafy sea dragons," Chine says. "They were like aliens to me."
There's an aesthetic correlation in the sea and space scenes, a point Chine tries to make, noting that he believes in evolution.
"Some paintings you can't tell if it's from the middle of the universe or the bottom of the ocean," he says.
The work is a mix of the surreal and realism.
"I think that's a good thing," he says.
Days before the show opens, Chine is still working on the art. Some pieces are finished, some are in progress. A large painting of an octopus is awaiting tentacles. One gallery wall has a row of blank, black canvases on different shapes hanging, yet to painted.
"I'm more of a realist, but when I get into my paints, I just kind of go nuts," Chine says.
Chine says he's always been an artist, which is evident in his day job doing tattoos. He's the owner of ChineBox Ink in Austintown, a tattoo boutique where Chine does only custom work by appointment.
"I just want to keep tattooing and do a show once a year," Chine says.
Chine says he studied art at Youngstown State University for three years, but dropped out.
"In three years, it felt like I only took two art classes," he says.
"Art is one of those fields that you can't teach," he says. "It just has to be inside of you. At least for me. I'm not telling people they shouldn't go to college."
His parents have always been supportive, but Chine says his old "school dad" wanted to know he could "make it." So Chine got a journeyman card in welding, working in the trade for five years, but his heart wasn't in it.
He describes long work days and longer work weeks, spending years working a job he didn't necessarily enjoy, all the while, wanting to make art. But he doesn't talk much about the work he did before, saving his enthusiasm to talk about how happy he is with what he's doing now.
Chine moved to downtown Warren about three years ago, and has found the community to be welcoming.
"I can't believe how much I've been, almost, embraced," Chine says slowly and thoughtfully. "Everyone has been very supportive and cool," he says.
He hosted his first solo art show in that gallery in January, during a snow storm. Still, he says, about 200 people came out.
"I did the first show because I had this space available to me," Chine says.
He lives at the North Park Avenue building that's home to the gallery. It used to house the Richard Dickinson School of Ballet studio, then, he says, "a kid used it to make shirts." He shows pictures of what the space used to be, including a recording studio.
Chine says he had been living on the second floor of the building when the space became available. When it did, he jumped at the chance to have an art studio and gallery.
"The space opened up and I just said, 'Fuck it," he says. "I wish I could do a show every three weeks."
In the week before the show, Chine says he'll set up a bed in the gallery itself to work on the installation.
"I move in with the art," he says, calling the space a playground.
Chine says after working all day at the tattoo shop, he comes home to the studio and "just gets to play."
"I'll sign the last painting two hours before the show," Chine says, seriously. "I'll work right up to the bell."
In addition to handling the art, he also takes care of the space, changing the paint on the walls and doors and set-up of the space from the last show to Saturday's showing. His parents, he says, will sometimes stop by and help out, but other than that, he's on his own.
"I redo the whole place so it's a different experience every time," he says.
In the days before the show, there's a tool chest and stereo playing loud music in the gallery. There's bowls of water waiting for fish and a slight smell of paint in the air. The floor needs a new coat of paint. He's taken the week of from tattooing, he says, but tells me going in the next day, anyway.
There's as much art in the design of the gallery as there will be displayed in it Saturday. There's a mosaic bar that used to be a door with an Eye of Horus motif that he says is a continuation from the bathroom that he redid completely himself in mosaic.
The show will be held from 9 to 11 p.m. Saturday because he wants the light to be "just right."
As he talks about the art, he pulls pieces out and runs his fingers over the surface, as worried about the final texture of a piece as he is about it's appearance.
But in talking in Chine, it's hard not to notice how humble he is. His plans for the future are simple.
"I just want to get as big as I can get tattooing; big as I can get painting," he says.
Saturday's reception will future a performance by The Drummond Family band. There's no charge for admission and there will be free refreshments. Following the show, the Drummonds will perform at an after party at the nearby Horseshoe Bar. Chine's studio and gallery is located at 160 N. Park Ave. in downtown Warren.
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