Chris Watson grew up in Scotland. From an early age his parents would take him to private views at a local gallery, where he soon learned to differentiate all kinds of salty snack.

After seeing the Vigourous Imagination show of Scottish figurative painters in Edinburgh, Chris decided to study drawing and painting at the Glasgow School of Art. He also spent a term at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, studying with Karl Wirsum and Dennis Adrian of the "Chicago Imagists" movement.

After graduating Chris dropped straight into a career busking on tea-chest bass. This proved to a be a red herring, soon he quit the instrument to concentrate on other pursuits such as drawing comic strips or buzzing in swarms of mounted hoodlums to motorcycle rallies in Scotland's frozen North. The sound of a motorcycle is glorious music. A sustained exhaust note can elevate an oily soul more than any church pipe organ can, nevermind the overrun.

Chris moved to East Sussex in 1997 where he lives with Lorna Miller and their dog, Barney & earns a living by illustrating for clients such as the Guardian, Bloomsbury books, BBC, the Idler, CTCL, Straight No Chaser, Mixmag, Jockey Slut, Bang magazine and many others.

In 2002 Chris gained an MA in Sequential Illustration at Brighton University. During this time the impeccably dressed Jonny Hannah introduced Chris to screenprinting by collaborating on two posters for a series of afterhours vinyl sessions at Brighton's crimsonest velvet hideaway - The Red Room. The night was called House of Bamboo for a rare side by jazz singer Earl Grant, which celebrates such fine things as Soho Joe's jukebox; a favourite of drag queens, lipsynchers and Andy Williams alike.

Thebes Gallery, Lewes, Dec 2002 & April 2003

Aoi annual show, Pall Mall Gallery London, April 2003

Tatty Devine, London, July -Sept 2003

Cinch, Soho, October - November 2003

Statement

"What interests me is where disciplines overlap Ð finding a connection Ð Illustration, Printmaking, Drawing and Painting, Modernism, Rockers, road movies, landscape painting, jazz record sleeves, bandes dessinees, German Expressionists, Punk, childrens picture books, comic strips, medieval tapestries, Aztec codices, The Simpsons, Krazy Kat, Miro, folk art, Cubism, Graphism, pin ups, old masters, Tito Puente, Bo Diddley, Ska, Hip hop, Greek legends, Pulp fiction, Folk tales, Tex Avery, Urban myths, Television, Hot Rods, Minimalism, CafŽ Racers, Street Culture, high fashion.

Rant

I donÕt want an art led by a tiny elite of tastemakers or with some artificial hierarchy of high and low brow culture forced on it. . The art I like is promiscuous, stealing from anywhere and everywhere, feeding on the ripe flesh of life, not solely on some stale academic notion - be it " Sensationalism" or whatever other ism is currently in fashion. I noticed some of the students treated their art as this precious thing on a high shelf, that seemed to be entirely separate from their personality and their lives. Being in the studio for them was like entering a convent or a monastery, yet they werenÕt monks or nuns in "real life" by no means. Some of them produced this dry austere work in hommage to the latest trends in dry conceptual austerity, and of course they listened to the latest sterile rock and dance music.

Maybe I had too much time on my hands as a student at Glasgow but IÕd be damned if IÕd accept anything off the peg or on a plate. OK if you 're satisfied with cheap disposable consumer product, have another McGlobal burger. Nike, Joseph Beuys and the Radio 1 playlist?. Is that all there is ? No! There must be more, IÕd instinctively rush in just the opposite direction to try and find something of my own. Finding buried treasure in stuff like small batch comics from New York, Marseilles, Seattle, Lubljana. -ItÕs hard to find but all the more valuable for the hunting.

Why not aim for a unique or at least beyond everyday experience. Forget the charts, treat yourself to ElvisÕs first album , or Chuck Berry, or PE, or the Stooges, Sonics, Howling Wolf, Captain Beefheart, Link Wray, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Bob Dylan, Nick Drake, Velvet Underground, Letigre, Stereo Total, Broadcast, Moondog, 13th Floor Elevators, Louis Armstrong, Augustus Pablo, Prince Buster, Billy Childish, Ray Charles, James Brown, Hank Williams, The Ramones, Serge Gainsbourg, Jacques Dutronc, Patsy Cline, Cowboy Junkies, Louis Jordan, Flatt & Scruggs,Gun Club, the Cramps, the Nat King ****ing Cole Trio?!

Boycott overpriced, cheaply produced, fake "Celebrity Wear" like V*n D*tch and get some authentic "Real Wear" from Ton-Up made with love and respect in the UK, or just make your own, here's how. If you dont want to get paint on your shirt , you can always staple a banknote on it instead. Make sure it's a large enough denomination to gain respect from your peers, instant street cred.