Artist Statement / Bio

 

Chuck Baker explores the stylization and mass production of images, and the commodification of objects. Die making, stencil making and vacuum forming are the primary processes through which his Art becomes Product . These processes allow Baker to manufacture his work in multiples, eliminating the solitude of the image.

 

Baker constantly questions the idea of authenticity and thinks of art as remnant. He feels art is something that can bear witness to culture, a culture that creates obsolescence as fast as it replaces itself with something equally transient.

His site specific paintings and sculptures are often displayed in boxes or bags and are visually convincing as commercially packaged objects. He investigates the idea of packaging art and the collision of creativity and marketing.

Baker tends to dissolve traditional boundaries that separate creative disciplines such as painting, sculpture, music and the performing arts. He has often turned his studio into a theatre, transforming the solitary act of painting into a theatrical happening or event for his audience.

 

"The artist / author / composer as social outcast, starving in a garret, persists as a common idea in our culture. I negate the romantic notion of artist as social outcast. The act of creating art doesn't have to be a solitary activity."

 

Baker enjoys interacting with artists of all disciplines and finds that collaborative and collective artistic efforts formulate a recipe for creative success. Baker received his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the University of Windsor , his Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Waterloo and his Bachelor of Education from the University of Western Ontario . He is currently head of Arts at Nottawasaga Pines Secondary School in Angus, Ontario.