In my recent drawings I explore the relationship between memory and pictorial expression.  My imagery is derived from my experience living in Japan between 2003 and 2006, and from my annual returns, as well as from living in the United States: California, Kentucky, Indiana, and most recently, Illinois, which is also where I spent the most time growing up.  Referring to remembered visual experiences as well as other resources, such as on site observational drawings and collected photographs of ordinary people and their environments, I work primarily from imagination to initiate my drawings.  By focusing on the distinct gestures of human figures, amplifying urban settings, and shifting vantage points between each image, my goal is to establish a new context for daily visual experience and to engage the audience with points of view outside the scope of everyday life.

The moments that I return to most often in my work are ones that I recall most easily because of their peculiar impact, however overt or subtle: the change in mood between familiar and unfamiliar locations, open and compressed spaces, glances and lines of sight between people, and details that potentially slip into the periphery of vision unnoticed.  These instances become fuel to initiate my work.  For me, drawing is an exercise in visual memory, which is best reinforced by sketches from life and photographs.  The act of observing allows me to internalize imagery, establishing strong associations between recorded visual information and memory to be accessed later while working from imagination.  When my memory fails, I return to observational studies for clarification.  

I begin many compositions directly on large-scale paper as abstract mark making then search for representational subject matter to refine within compositions, while others begin as sketchbook studies with an intended setting to depict. The starting point may reverse from drawing to drawing, yet I intuitively combine both approaches while responding to subject matter as it develops.  This process allows compositions to progressively suggest narrative content through emerging relationships between figures and spaces.  The depicted situations then provoke the viewer's own unique personal associations.  

Recently, I have focused on two additional variables because of the challenges they contribute to image making and the potential content they introduce: duration of time and comparison of environments. By depicting the passage of time as a sequence of actions across a continuous space, I intend to expand narrative aspects of my drawings, as well as engage the audience with the unexpected discrepancies that appear from one moment to the next. Additionally, I have begun comparing visual cultures in order to understand why some aspects of the places I encounter resonate more strongly than others as memories.  The location I return to most often in my work is Kagoshima City, which, out of my available choices, seems to have the most striking contrast to the Midwestern United States.

Some of my influences include Mark Bischel, Robert Birmelin, Edward Hopper and Edgar Degas, as well as graphic novel artists Lienil Yu, Travis Charest, and Sam Kieth.

born:1980, Kansas City, MO

education:

California State University, Long Beach, MFA, 2008
Bradley University, BFA, 2003

selected awards/honors

Grand Prize, 61st Nobeoka City Exhibition, 2011
Grand Prize, 60th Nobeoka City Exhibition, 2010
Award of Excellence, Southern Japan Art Exhibition, 2005
Grand Prize, 52nd Kagoshima Prefectural Art Exhibition, 2005

selected publications

Slow Art Productions, "Direct Art 18", Direct Art, 2011, pg 42
Slow Art Productions, "Emerging Artists 07," Direct Art, fall/winter,  2007 pg. 97
Southern Japan Newspaper (Minami Nihon Shinbun), "Pursue My Style," 11 Nov. 2005
Kouichi Shibatachi, "Kao (Face)." Southern Japan Newspaper (Minami Nihon Shinbun), 20 May 2005

selected solo or two-person exhibits

Joan Derryberry Gallery: Christopher Troutman, Tennessee Tech University, Cookeville, TN, 2011
Macomb Center for the Performing Arts Gallery: Innate Notes, Detroit, MI, 2011
Parkland College Gallery: Shifting Perspectives and Sensitive Observations, Champaign, IL 2010
Carnegie Visual and Performing Arts Center: Joomi Chung and Christopher Troutman, Cincinnati, OH, 2010

selected group shows

Heuser Gallery: 33rd Bradley International, Peoria, IL 2011
Buckham Gallery: Rasterize, Flint, MI, 2011
Nobeoka Civic Center Gallery: 60th Nobeoka City Art Exhibition, Nobeoka, Miyazaki, Japan, 2010
Wallace L. Anderson Gallery: Paper Explorations, Bridgewater, MA, 2009