Today we’d like to introduce you to Charis Derry.
Hi Charis, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
Aloha, my name is Charis. (Rhymes with “Paris”, said with a K sound—it’s the Greek word for “God’s gift of grace”.) I am a painter/illustrator/art teacher currently based out of Northern Utah. Here’s some of my story.
I have always loved representational art. I loved to draw and paint and make things out of paper as a kid. I think it was Disney animation and going to Disneyland and seeing all the awesome design there that made me see that art could be a career. And growing up a homeschooled kid in strange but beautiful Santa Cruz, California also probably gave me just the right amount of delusion to set my mind on pursuing art from an early age. My mom was a teacher and my dad was a graduate of MIT with a PHD, so ambition and higher learning were always big goals in our house. My parents thankfully encouraged my art and my getting a solid education in it.
Even though I was more academic in school, and way better at math and literature than drawing actually, I was still set on going to art college (despite my high school guidance counselor advising me against it and asking if I knew I’d be flipping burgers afterwards). I determined to get into what I’d heard was the best and most prestigious design school on the west coast, Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, CA. Even with a 4.0+ gpa and a high SAT score, it took me a year of art classes at another school in San Francisco (and giving up major scholarships to other schools) in order to get into that school. And then when I did I was still one of the youngest entering freshmen there at the time.
Once at ACCD, I made Illustration my major and took Entertainment Design classes on the side. It was thrilling to have such amazing artist teachers and be surrounded by other ambitious hardworking and talented students. I loved being surrounded by people who were so passionate about drawing and painting and design in all its forms. But it was also very hard, cut throat even. Competition over collaboration. And studying there opened up whole worlds to me but I felt a little lost in all the options. I didn’t know if I wanted to be an animator, children’s book illustrator, visual development artist, greeting card artist, gallery artist, or even possibly a screenwriter. Worse yet was realizing that no matter how hard I worked, some things I just wasn’t as naturally good at as others, which went against all I had been indoctrinated in, that as long as you worked really hard you can achieve anything. I felt this was no longer true, at least not for me.
The summer after college I got an internship with Film Roman, the animation studio that makes The Simpsons as well as a few other shows, which was a major highlight for me as a huge animation art fan. As exciting as that was, I only got it because I had a friend who worked there and was kind enough help me out, and I realized how much of that industry comes down to who you know and the kind of schmoozy networking that I was never good at. I saw a lot of unhappy people unfortunately, which made me realize my dream jobs maybe weren’t such dreams. I burned out on the LA scene and the wannabe Hollywood attitudes that went with it. I headed back up to Northern California to my hometown, feeling that it was important for me to be back near my family again.
I got a job teaching art to kids for a year and I absolutely hated it. I felt like a total failure as I saw people I graduated with getting jobs with major video game and animation companies while I was just teaching children in a small town. I moved on from that job and bounced around a bit, working for a construction firm for a while (which surprised me that I loved, mostly because of the kind of salt of the earth people I was working with), working on an indie movie project for no pay, painting and exhibiting in local art shows, even going to Africa for a short time to help build an orphanage, and living in the great city of Boston for an east coast autumn, always scraping by not making any major career accomplishments but soaking in all of life’s lessons and experiences along the way.
I started teaching drawing and painting in private lessons and realized I didn’t hate it so much, and that really it was just the culture of the organization I first taught art with that I hated, but not teaching itself. And that maybe, even though “those who can’t do, teach” was often ringing in my head as an ugly accusatory voice, teaching tweens and teens who wanted to make beautiful illustrations and cool character designs, just like I did, wasn’t so bad after all. It was actually really exciting to help others pursue their dreams. And I realized ya know what, some of my favorite college artist professors who I looked up to so very much, they obviously weren’t supporting themselves 100% just from their art or they wouldn’t be teaching too, and I finally felt like it was ok to just have a humble regular job and make my own art on the side. After all, a good teacher is just someone who is so passionate about a subject that they can’t help but share it with others. Someone who commits to lifelong learning themselves in that field. And that was me, always thinking about the crafting of beautiful images that went along with compelling stories, always happy to learn more painting techniques and share what I learned with others. So then in my late 20s when I met my husband who was stationed with the Navy in Monterey, CA, but was soon going to be shipped out to Hawaii, it was good that I wasn’t tied to some hard-to-give-up-job at a big fancy company, and I was able to pack up and move to Oahu with him after we got hitched.
Living in Hawaii as a newlywed and starting a family and having my babies there was such an amazing adventure. I loved it! And I found my artistic home as a teacher again, this time teaching at the Arts & Crafts Center on base at Pearl Harbor. What started out as a teaching a class or 2 a week grew into a full time job with multiple contracts as I started providing classes on other bases as well, to homeschool groups, and eventually running a lot of “paint & sip” style classes right at the height of their popularity. I taught those at Officer’s Clubs, to private groups, and in a regular gig at a very popular hotel right on Waikiki Beach. I was fully running my own business at that point, sometimes even having to hire help. And I was also finding other parts of myself on the island beyond art, in motherhood, as a military spouse, and as a lover of the ocean.
I’ve always loved the sea, but growing up in Santa Cruz, the ocean was always cold and dark and somewhat dangerous, and it felt like you had to be a sporty surfer type (the total opposite of me) jn order to get in and enjoy it. In Hawaii both the currents and the beach culture were more welcoming, and I fell in love with freediving and swimming along with dolphins and sea turtles and rays and octopuses etc. I took great joy in my own little amateur underwater photography. So much of my artistic inspiration now comes from those moments. They are the scenes I like to paint the most.
The idea of having to move off island if the military said so was always looming, but we lucked out and my husband ended up stationed there 3 times in a row which gave us 9 years there. I was heartbroken when it came time to leave, and for my husband to move on from the Navy into a civilian contractor job on the mainland, but I couldn’t have known how much God works things out in perfect timing. Because that was 2019 and right before Covid hit, which would have killed my art teaching business anyway and there’s no way we could have survived in Hawaii on only one income.
We ended up back in California for a few months in between things, as it turned out just at a time when we had a major death in the family and I needed to be there the most. It was a hard year full of many transitions, first in my immediate family and then in the whole wide world, and I’m just proud we survived it and am thankful for all the friends and family who were there for us and each other along the way. After patiently and excruciatingly waiting for things to get processed so we could start the next phase of our lives, my husband’s new job came through and it brought our family of four to Utah in 2020. It took a while to get settled to say the least, with everything going on in the world then, but now we are and we are happy here. I took a break from teaching and worked on some personal projects for a couple years in the middle of all that while focusing on momming and watching my two sweet kiddos grow. And ironically while landlocked, because I was missing the ocean and looking for an underwater outlet, I finally took the classes to get get officially PADI certified as both a mermaid and freediver!
Then in 2024 I found the lovely Local Artisan Collective in Ogden. It’s a creative community I’m really proud to be a part of and a place I’m teaching art at once again! I’ve got classes in illustration and gouache painting and entertainment art and portraiture, even getting to geek out on my favorite kinds of animation art once again with my always awesome students. The collective includes a glassblower, a jeweler & silversmith, a marbler/hand dyer, a bead worker, leather worker & wood burner, watercolor artist, acrylic artist, myself, and many more. We all sell our wares out of the funnest little store in the heart of downtown. It’s a place where all are welcome and given space to let their creativity thrive. You can buy art or come make art with us. If you’re local, I hope you will come visit us there sometime!
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Absolutely not. I’ve already mentioned a lot of those struggles above, how pursuing art as a career was never a linear or easy path, no matter how ambitious or hard working I thought I was or what fancy design college I went to when I was young. Feelings of failure were something I dealt with all the time, and honestly still do. Artists have to deal with rejection constantly because we have to keep putting ourselves out there to show our work, and any artist will tell you there’s usually more nos than yeses along the way. But there’s no other way. At some point I just decided it’s ok to be a failure in the world’s eyes (teaching kids, not making big bucks, not working for major companies or big brands to put on my resume, sometimes working non art jobs, often only working part time so I can have the freedom and flexibility be home with my own children). It’s ok as long as I’m being true to myself, as long as my family and those I love most are taken care of and I’m able to be there for them, and as long as I’m not letting those feelings of inadequacy or worldly goals then kill my joy in something I really love. All artists struggle with this to some degree or another. We have to find out why we keep creating even if it doesn’t always “pay off” or match up with what the world says is worthy of our pursuing. We have to have the tenacity to ignore rejection and failure and just keep going. We often make our art in spite of, not because of, so many things. And that is ok. It’s still absolutely worth it if it’s something you love and that’s who God made you to be.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
Besides teaching, which I think is where I help and connect with others the most, I paint and exhibit my personal figurative oil paintings. They are mostly scenes of lovely ladies and/or animals at the beach or swimming in the underwater world. They capture in paint the moments I long for and live for, moments of inspiration and connection with creation and the creator. I paint commissioned portraits as well, which let me make meaningful art for others when they want to honor a loved one that way. And I make a lot of mermaid illustrations too! I may be landlocked now, but I take the ocean with me wherever I go via my art. I’m proud to say that I’ve shown and sold my paintings in major cities including San Francisco, Los Angeles, Carmel, Boston, Honolulu, Haleiwa, and now Ogden.
What was your favorite childhood memory?
Hanging out with family or friends at the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk. If you’ve seen the 80s movie The Lost Boys, then you understand about half of my childhood, because that’s really what being there at that time as a kid felt like! That plus drawing characters from Disney movies and painting illustrations inspired by Greek mythology, and church and family and the beach, and you’ve got the sum up. Kind of a weird mix right? But it made me who I am.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.dailypaintworks.com/Artists/charis-derry-10939
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/charisart
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CharisArt/
- Youtube: https://m.youtube.com/@privatepaintparty
- Other: https://localartisancollective.com/
