Today we’d like to introduce you to Chris Ayers.
Every artist has a unique story. Can you briefly walk us through yours?
I work as a character designer and visual development artist in the entertainment industry (currently at Disney designing monsters for their upcoming Monsters Inc. spin-off series Monsters at Work), which I find to be very creatively challenging and engaging. How I came to do this—and the adventures that I’ve had while doing this—would probably make for some interesting stories. But that’s not the story I’m going to share today.
Rather, I’d like to tell about a blue-footed booby that saved my life.
On April Fool’s Day, 2005 I was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia, an aggressive type of blood cancer. Previously very healthy, this news came out of nowhere and hit me like an Acme safe falling on Wile E. Coyote. My world instantly turned upside down and I was hospitalized that night, my head spinning both from an intense fever and from trying to grasp what all this meant.
Over the course of the next several months, I underwent treatment that included multiple rounds of high dose chemo, countless transfusions, total body irradiation, and an autologous stem cell transplant. During this time, I experienced a roller coaster of emotions, a wrestling match with my mortality, and what felt like one or two thousand needle pokes. My passion for drawing, a near-constant and faithful companion throughout my entire life’s journey thus far, decided to disappear for a while. Partly, I was just too physically sick and lacked the energy—both mental and physical—to do much drawing. But also I was just so focused on the intense whirlwind of medical procedures and just trying to cope with the realization that my expiration date might be approaching much sooner than I had ever considered.
A few months into treatment, however, my passion for creating came back. My sketchbook and imagination became useful tools in combating the many daily challenges of life in the cancer ward: a caricature of a nurse became a slight distraction from the painful mouth sores and nausea; a doodle of an asparagus-selling albino alligator named Abilene became an antidote for days of confinement in a single hospital room. My pencil couldn’t cure all ailments or guarantee that I would achieve remission, of course, but it did wield more power than one would think a thin cylinder of wood and graphite could possess.
Creative exploration can be an amazing thing. This has become even more apparent to me over the past fourteen years, which I’ve gratefully spent in full remission from leukemia. In the spring of 2006, as I was approaching the one-year anniversary of my diagnosis, my treatments were nearly done and physically I was feeling close to my pre-cancer days. Mentally and emotionally, however, I had work to do to continue to process what I had just endured.
And this is where that blue-footed booby comes in. In order to help get my head back on straight, I gave myself the challenge of drawing one animal each day for a year. Cancer taught me how unpredictable life can be and that tomorrow is not a guarantee for anyone. I wanted to give myself the small daily gift of making time to do something that I have loved to do my entire life. I called the project the Daily Zoo and the very first sketch was a blue-footed booby. Out of all the possibilities the animal kingdom has to offer, I’m not sure why I chose to start things off with an awkward-looking seabird wearing comically blue “shoes,” but that’s what my imagination delivered.
I’ve continued the Daily Zoo beyond its inaugural year and that blue-footed booby has been joined by nearly 5,000 (and counting) furry, feathered, and finned friends. What started as purely a private sketchbook, has taken me on quite the unexpected journey yielding the publication of a series of books (The Daily Zoo: Keeping the Doctor at Bay with a Drawing a Day), international exhibitions of my work, speaking engagements at hospitals, clinics, and schools, and an opportunity to share my story with a global audience.
Please tell us about your art.
I grew up in Minnesota and pretty much always had a pencil in my hand. I’ve loved to draw—especially animals, people, & monsters—for my entire life. There is something about drawing characters, and trying to fill them with emotion and personality that I find fascinating. Imagining my existence without this passion for breathing life into frenzied flamingos, narcoleptic narwhals, and monsters of all shapes and sizes is hard, if not impossible, for me to do. I’m grateful that my career involves an activity that I’ve loved since I was a child surrounded by Star Wars toys and comic books.
Drawing an animal each day for the past fourteen years has been fun, therapeutic, and rewarding on many levels. Exercising my imagination with such consistency has been a great outlet for my creative muscles and has benefited other areas of my life, from my day job at Disney to dreaming up fantastical tales with my 6-year-old son at storytime.
I hope readers of The Daily Zoo are further inspired to pursue their own passions, whatever those passions happen to be. Engaging our minds in creative problem solving and, yes, dreaming can only make our world a better place.
Do you have any advice for other artists?
Work hard. Practice! Practice! Practice! (And then, probably, practice some more.) Stay curious. Dream! Keep it FUN.
I’ve found it very helpful to make time for my personal creative endeavors as well as whatever projects I’m working at in a professional capacity. Both creating art for myself and creating art for clients can be rewarding and fulfilling, but often in different ways. If I want to stay “artistically perky,” it’s important that I have a balance between the two, and the Daily Zoo has been a great way to keep my creative batteries charged.
How or where can people see your work? How can people support your work?
The easiest way to check out some of my art is to head over to ChrisAyersDesign.com where I have a sampling of both my professional and personal work, including some images from The Daily Zoo.
Through my web store, you can pick up copies of the various Daily Zoo books as well as prints and other goodies, and I’m happy to sketch your favorite animal in any book ordered through my site.
Throughout the year, I exhibit at a number of local conventions, book festivals, and art fairs. Upcoming events are listed on my website.
My next event will be the CTNx Animation Expo from November 21-24, 2019 at the Burbank Marriott Hotel, a gathering of many of the top animation artists and designers.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.chrisayersdesign.com
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Chris-Ayers-The-Daily-Zoo-34718362718/
- Other: Webstore: https://chrisayers.bigcartel.com
Image Credit:
Thasja Hoffmann, Chris Ayers
Suggest a story: VoyageLA is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
