About The Artist: Christian Bachez
/By Dan Carlson
For more fun facts about Christian, head over to our TikTok or Instagram Reels for more Q&A!
If you’re familiar with our Crowler Art Q&A blog posts, you know that “how long have you been practicing art” is a regular question of ours, and you probably know that the answer is always some variation of “I’ve been drawing for as long as I can remember.”
Not this time!
Our artist of our current crowler label, Christian Bachez, has had a short but downright meteoric journey as an artist. In fact, he started drawing only in April 2020 as a pandemic hobby. But since then, he’s taken on studio art as a major at Holy Cross and has had his work featured prominently across the city, including at Holy Cross, Glazy Susan, and El Buen Samaritano.
How did Christian go from his first sketchbook to multiple murals in two short years? Read on to find out!
How would you describe yourself as an artist - both from a practical and a creative standpoint?
You never want to put yourself in a box - but in general, I’m mainly a digital artist. I do love converting digital drawings into murals and paintings, and I’m always into the fine art aspect - getting to paint a face or a scene - but mainly I’m a digital artist.
As an artist, I’d say I like to make people laugh. I think art is super powerful in engaging with emotions. Some artists like to make people angry, or make people aware of certain issues, and I think that’s important, but with my work I just want to make people laugh. I love to make people say “I love how this is so goofy, I love that it’s on this wall.” People and kids can enter into a space, and it’s more welcoming. It’s not so serious all the time.
When did you start practicing art?
I wasn’t interested in art until about April 2020. It was my pandemic project - I just bought a sketchbook and started drawing. I did faces at first, then got really interested in things like street art, graffiti, lettering, and characters. And it’s just developed since COVID.
I took some introductory classes in high school, which was all right, and a Photoshop class, which I liked. But I never practiced art outside of class. But once the pandemic hit, I just started drawing and painting on my own, and suddenly I was like “wow, I love this.”
Since then, I’ve taken more classes and declared a Studio Art major in Holy Cross. The pandemic happened toward the end of my freshman year. My original plan was to major in Psychology and Spanish. I took one Spanish class and did not like it, but I stuck with Psychology - it was my main thing. Now I’m a double major, and I still love psychology.
With art, I love it so I spend a lot of time with it and working at it. I’m better at it now, but it’s not a natural-born talent. I spent a lot of time developing my skills, putting work into it. I care about it enough that I do it outside of class, so then that progress shows up when I’m in class.
I haven’t spent 10,000 hours. I haven’t perfected it, but I feel like I’ve spent a good amount of time getting to where I’m at.
That’s very different from most artists we’ve worked with! As an art major, what’s it like being around your classmates who have probably been practicing art for years?
It’s always so daunting when people have huge portfolios and are like “I took AP art in high school.” I’m like, “Oh. Oh, I did not.”
At the same time, it’s kind of fun seeing how much I’ve progressed when I started so late. Honestly, for me, it’s all about the passion and finding connections with good people. It’s not just using art as a way to get to people, it’s using art to have a cause and meaning and developing that.
My first major project, Who Is Worcester, was all about bringing different communities of Worcester to Holy Cross and educating students about this community. It was a gift to them and all about telling people about all the good in the city.
From a technical standpoint, you’ve obviously been able to develop your skills very quickly. But does that storytelling and messaging part come to you as easily?
I’ve attended three Jesuit schools, with Holy Cross being the most recent. Though I’m not really religious, I do identify with them because they do a lot with community service. I’ve been doing community service since the fifth grade. I’ve handed out peanut butter and jelly sandwiches at shelters, and I’ve gone to nursing homes to talk with the people that are there because they often don’t have families or people. I’m constantly thinking about that, and how to express that, share that, and get more people to be involved with that.
But generally, it starts with an idea and a sketch and goes from there. For example, I really care about mental health issues - it doesn’t really get the spotlight it deserves. So I’m thinking of reaching out to an organization called You Are Not Alone Murals, which does giant murals that just say “You Are Not Alone” in different colors and designs. So that’s an example of one idea I might have. But sometimes, it just starts with a sketch and goes from there.
What’s been your favorite project so far?
It would probably be the Glazy Susan mural. I just reached out to Joe Skrzek, the owner, and we started talking about Holy Cross and Worcester. The subject of art came up at the end, super briefly, and I just went home and that was that. But I was really motivated by the conversation and the atmosphere at Glazy Susan and starting sketching in my book. I digitized it and posted it to my Instagram Stories and he messaged me and was like “was this at Glazy? Would you do this here?” That’s when we started talking about a mural.
The actual installation process was crazy. It was scheduled to be done between December 20 and Christmas, but I got sick in the middle of it and basically I had to finish it in two days. I had to use a lift, and maybe broke the wall a little bit. It was crazy but just such a memorable experience for me.
How did you create the crowler label for Redemption Rock?
It started at POW! WOW! Worcester 2021. I was so motivated by the artists there. They’re just painting these gorgeous pieces on these walls, and they’re just such cool people. After that, I would just go back to Holy Cross and draw for hours. I was so motivated by them.
And then I saw that Michelle Hoogveld did a can for you, and wondered what I would do with a can. So I just started sketching and a few ideas came from that. And when I reached out to you and I looked back at that and I thought it was really funny with the long arms wrapped around it.
It was a pencil sketch in a notebook (I’m a big advocate for everyone having a sketchbook, just to jot down ideas). And then I digitized it, added details like the “I Love Jimmy” tattoo.
For the background, I just love a lot of color and wanted a lot of splashes of color. I wanted it so people could look and see all the different colors and a lot of moving pieces, but there wouldn’t be too much detail - it’s consistent throughout.
With the design, it’s just Snax (ed. note: that fuzzy character) hugging the can. It’s an embrace. I don't want to impose a meaning on it, but it could mean he’s loving the can he’s drinking right now. It’s just a message of love and camaraderie. It’s a malleable character.
Where are you going from here? What are your future goals as an artist?
The ideal is becoming a full-time artist. I’m loving the volunteer aspect of it - creating something larger than a mural, working with kids - so I think education is probably in my future. Or maybe it’s through my Psychology degree, finding a path from that. But I’m enjoying the art now, so for my last year at Holy Cross I’ll keep working and making an impact here in Worcester.
For more fun facts about Christian, head over to our TikTok or Instagram Reels for more Q&A!
