DIVING INTO A WORLD OF COLOR
Artist creates interactive sculptures of colorful schooling fish
Chris Shaw doesn’t often get much downtime. When he does, he can often be found working on his art. His art world takes him far away from the rigors of driving for FedEx — which he has done for 28 years.
As an artist, Shaw dives deep to
create colorful fish — schools of them.
“The concept came from my dad (Ray),” Shaw says. “He told me, ‘Chris, you could be a great fit at it.’ ”
Inspired by the BBC “Blue Planet” documentary series, Shaw reproduces the natural occurrence of schooling fish chased to the sea surface.
The dimensional and sculptural art is interactive; as each fish is mounted on a steel plate with a magnetic post with 80 handcarved and hand-painted wooden fish.
“My dad was inspired by how the herring was chased by other fish and the shapes it made,” he says. “My dad thought it would be a cool art project. I picked it up and ran with it. It’s a lot of fun creating different patterns with all the fish.”
Shaw’s interactive art allows the client to indulge their own
creativity and design their own unique “school-of-fish.”
The detailing on each fish is intricate and created by hand.
Because the fish are magnetic, they can be rearranged to each person’s liking.
“There are endless possibilities,” Shaw says. “When someone buys a piece, it’s possible to continue to change it up every time someone comes by.”
There are pieces such as the spotted trout or tequila sunrise.
“I like to work with bold colors,” Shaw says. “It’s a wooden fish covered in fabric, and then I hand-paint each tail to complement the fabric. Not one fish is the same.”
Most of Shaw’s pieces range from 32 to 80 pieces — with bigger fish, the number goes down.