If you're reading this blog post, you are probably wondering the same question.

"Why is Chris living in Japan?"

It might seem counter initiative for an American artist, to move across the world to a country that does not speak his native, nor follows the same conventions, to pursue an art career. The many hurdles of just getting to Japan alone would cause the average artist to say, “Eh, it’s too hard, I’ll do something else.” But for me it was always my desire to come here. Why? Well there are a couple reasons for that.

For starters, I grew up here.

Yep, at the ripe old age of 9 years old, I moved to Japan with my family due to my fathers military service in Japan. My parents met in Tokyo in the 80’s and wanted to share the culture with their small family. I had no knowledge of Japan at the time, no interest, no desire, all my main wants were pizza and cartoons. But would be just another routine trip to somewhere for my dad’s work, would be a proverbial life changing experience for me. 

I arrived at the height of what some might consider Japanese culture and anime, the mid-90’s. I was exposed to it all, Dragon Ball Z, Ruroni Kenshin, Detective Conan, Super Sentai Senshi, B-Fighter, Doraemon, and so much more. All this led me to wanting to create these characters, whenever I had the chance. Soon I was at my local library looking for ways to draw better, and which led to my 4th grade teacher telling me that I could be an artist for a living. Which set me off on my creative journey.

Even after I returned to the states, I was still enthralled with the level of craftsmanship and variety that could be found here. So much so, that I went to college pursuing an animation degree just so I could do it. And eventually work here.