The Art of Becoming: Craig Chivers

Craig Chivers has never believed in limits, whether that be in art, teaching, or even imagination. From flipping through Da Vinci coffee table books at age four to now running his own atelier in Tokyo, Chivers has always approached life and art with the same inquisitive mindset.

Chivers was born and raised in Simcoe, Ontario, Canada, a small agricultural area known for tobacco just west of the Niagara region. Since he was a child, Chivers knew that all he wanted to be when he grew up was an artist. “I literally told my brother when I was three years old, drawing with my Crayolas, that this was all I wanted to do for the rest of my life,” he says.

“People always ask me when I started making art,” Chivers says. “But it’s usually an easier question to ask somebody else when they stopped.” He explains that everybody starts making art together as early as kindergarten – whether it be dancing, singing, or drawing. “Everybody does all these things together,” he describes. “And at some point, some people stop.” But Chivers never did. Since before he could walk, Chivers looked at the world differently, drawing inspiration from even the most ordinary surroundings. “In my childhood home there was this ceremonial room that we called the living room,” he recalls. “My parents had this coffee table, and one of the things they put on this coffee table was art books.” Chivers explains that while for others, the coffee table books merely served as decoration or interior design. But for him, they were a temple or an altar. “They were these huge books of Michelangelo or Da Vinci,” he says. “And even when I was four or six, I would just go into this room and stare at these books.”

“It would be impossible to mention everybody,” Chivers says with a laugh when asked about his artistic inspirations. “The first art I was ever exposed to were cartoons and comic books,” he recalls. Even before he could read, Chivers, like many children, was immersed in the bold colors and dynamic figures of superheroes, whether it was through Spider-Man t-shirts or comic books. Thus, he notes John Romita, the creator of Spider-Man, as one of his earliest influences. As a child, Chivers was familiar with the big names of classical art like Monet and Van Gogh, but it was years after when his world expanded. “As high school progressed, I quickly found out about contemporary painters,” he says. “People like Eric Fishel, Lucian Freud, Francis Bacon…” He trails off, the list clearly endless. From Marvel pajamas to world-renowned painters, Chivers’ journey through art has been shaped by a fusion of inspiration from infancy to adulthood that continues to resonate with him today.

“Jack of all trades master of none”—a saying that Chivers particularly dislikes. “It means that you’ll never be good at anything if you do many things,” Chivers explains. “Which is not true at all.” Chivers is a drawer, a painter, a sculptor—an artist. He possesses the ability to blend and harmonize different techniques, versing himself with many diverse art forms. “Not everything has to be different every time, but I kind of do something different every time,” he shares about his own art. “Of course I’m doing a lot of things the same every time, but I’m also always constantly changing things.” Chivers concedes that there are many artists who just like using one material—for example, some artists like to draw and they do everything with pencil. “I guess the easiest way of describing them is as ‘specialists,’” he notes. “But I’ve never had this outlook.” Chivers brings up Leon Battista Alberti, a 16th century Renaissance era Florentine author, artist, architect, poet, priest, linguist, philosopher, and cryptographer. “He wrote this classic treatise on architecture and put forward these main divisions of art, basically saying that art is anything,” Chivers explains. “That’s probably a more important thing and message than my messages.” Chivers describes Leon Battista Alberti’s message with the example of architecture, explaining, “Alberti said that as an architect,  you’re not as skilled as a draftsman, you’re not as skilled as a painter, and you’re not as skilled as a sculptor.” However, he remarks that architects were generally regarded at the time as superior to specialists. “They are able to take a good amount of knowledge from different places and synthesize it into something much more poignant or grand.” Chivers carries this message with him, never hesitating to go beyond the confines of just one genre. Whether it be drawing with charcoal, testing different historical materials, or even experimenting with oil painting on washi, Chivers continues to weave a richer tapestry from many threads.

“One of things that I’ve never understood in life is this word that people often say to me,” Chivers begins. “Bored.” Bored is a word that Chivers does not understand the meaning of. “You have your brain,” he shares. “You can think anything.” Chivers doesn’t recall ever experiencing the phenomena of creative blocks simply because of the limitlessness of human imagination. “If you want to be in Mars flying around as an outer-space being, you’re there,” he exclaims with a laugh. “Actually doing that might be a little more difficult, but your imagination has the power to do anything.” Whether it be in front of a blank canvas, in the middle of a long line at airport immigration, or in the back seat of a car during a long road trip, Chivers just relies on himself to imagine.

Although Chivers was born halfway across the world in Canada, he has lived in Japan for nearly 18 years, first introduced to Japan through his wife. Chivers and his wife met in New York City while he was attending graduate school at the New York Academy of Art and his wife at The City College of New York, the two living at the same international housing dormitory. “We came to Japan and got married, moved to Toronto, and then came back,” Chivers explains. Since moving to Japan, Chivers has forged a new path in art: a teacher.

Chivers had always known about commercial artists, but he had never been interested in working for somebody else, bringing somebody else’s ideas to life. Thus, he turned to a career path through which he could inspire others to bring their own ideas to life. “If you think of it philosophically, painting is a form of philosophy,” Chivers says, explaining his journey in teaching. “And the definition of philosophy has to include teaching. I mean, if you’re a philosopher without teaching then you’re a monk.” Chivers narrates that philosophy, a category in which art falls under, is exploring things with other people. “There never would have been an Aristotle without the lyceum,” he emphasizes. “And there never would have been a lyceum without Aristotle.” He carries this same philosophy out everyday as the owner of his own Atelier in Hiroo, Tokyo. “Maintaining the atelier as a community space is the most important thing because it’s all a community,” he says. “We need each other.” Chivers explains that as a teacher, guiding others through their own artistic journey, he has learned more about himself than ever before. Chivers believes that as a teacher, he not only teaches and helps his students learn, but he himself learns from helping other people. “You just learn so much more about yourself,” he adds.

As a student himself, Chivers has visited some of the most incredible ateliers around the world. Whether it be the Florence Academy of Art, the Academy of Realist Art, or Water Street Atelier (now Grand Central Academy), he has been to several world class schools with world class facilities—which he notes that his atelier certainly does not have. “I say things aren’t perfect around here because we don’t have a million dollars here,” he laughs. “If we had a million-dollar studio, I would have to charge you a million dollars.” He explains that the general model of a private atelier is simply “raise your prices, raise your prices, raise your prices.” Naturally, by earning more money, ateliers will be able to afford better locations, better materials, and better facilities. “But then who are your students?” Chivers asks. “Only the people who can afford that.” From the very beginning of his atelier, Chivers has always tried to keep his prices at the absolute bottom. “I don’t care about making money,” he says. “As long as I can pay the bills and make my art, what else matters after that?” Chivers has had students travel from all across Japan to create art at his atelier, many of them choosing his specific studio because of the affordable prices. Students have traveled to the atelier from tropical Okinawa to snowy Hokkaido, and Chivers has even had students commuting in and out weekly from Shonan or Chiba. “Some of these people chose me because it was the lowest price and they couldn’t afford to go anywhere else,” Chivers describes, emphasizing the importance of accessibility in art. “And a lot of those people were my absolute best students.”

Chivers approaches his teaching in the same way for all of his students, no matter their level. “I always start my trial lessons by telling everybody you are the best and most important teacher for yourself,” he says. “I’m just a guy.” He emphasizes that each artist is different, even asking “what is art?” Chivers explains art in terms of fashion, saying, “There are people who want to wear all black, and there are people who want to dress in kawaii pink—and both are fine.” He elaborates on the idea that there is no right and no wrong in art, no good or no bad. “Any six-year-old’s drawing is just as important as the Sistine ceiling,” he notes.

Chivers is a motivating force for his students, encouraging them to continue their artistic journey no matter any blocks. “There’s a lot of people who will say, ‘This is hard,’ or ‘I wanna do something better,’ and they get frustrated,” he details. “But, you know, none of this stuff is hard.” Chivers simply tells them, “You’ve already done the most difficult thing in your life: learn to stand up.” By thinking that anything is difficult, Chivers explains that you have already failed and decided that you can’t do it.

“It’s not always good to repeat the advice of other people, but I think this is very important,” Chivers says, explaining his message for aspiring artists. Chivers recalls his story of his apprenticeship as a university student in Florence, Italy, studying under Polish-American sculptor Andrew Wielawski. “I was just there wanting all the wisdom from this great master,” Chivers remembers. “And the first thing he asked me was what I wanted to do.” As a new university aged apprentice, Chivers was confused, asking his teacher, “Aren’t you a teacher—shouldn’t you tell me what to do?” However, Chivers’ teacher simply responded by asking him what his dream or his vision really was. Chivers’ detailed his ideas, and the next day he and his teacher picked out a stone from the quarry and immediately began his project. “So I would just say the exact same thing: Do exactly what you want to do,” he explains. “There are no steps.”

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