Recently, I had the wonderful opportunity to get to know, Aaron Christensen, one of Oopsy daisy Fine Art for Kids most popular artists. Aaron, a self described “big kid” in a 43 year old’s body, juvenile delinquent, professional browser, people watcher and amateur gardener is most notably an accomplished painter and complete room designer.
“Vintage pop” would be one way to describe Aaron’s style as an artist. What is so alluring to his fan base is the unique way in which he captures the essence of vintage inanimate objects in his wall art for kids. Aaron loves to manipulate paint to reproduce the perception of texture from objects of days past. The patina of an old metal box, the chipped paint of an old Coca Cola bill board or the cracked and worn out leather on a 1950’s baseball become the inspiration for Aaron’s paintings. Aaron f
Artist Aaron Christensen
eeds his passion by consistently scouring old antique stores and road side shops looking for objects that look like they have “survived”. He loves to imagine the “back-story” behind mid-century billboards, rusty signs, and other neglected items. These “back-stories” become his muse when he paints.
Aaron was raised in Southern California. He comes from a long line of artists, his mom and great grandfather are painters. His dad was a marble mason who built props for the movie industry. Art was integrated into Aaron’s life as far back as he can remember. It was in second grade when he realized that he had inherited the family gift. Others began calling him a little artist when he entered a painting of a leprechaun family for a St Patrick’s Day billboard contest and won. It is the real and articificial memories of his youth, a time associated with Brady Bunch and Bewitched shows, that he strives to recreate with his vintage styled art.
The process Aaron uses to achieve his vintage looking wall art is self invented. He uses unconventional processes of lifting paints that he has learned through trial and error. Aaron paints an image several times, one on top of the other, then uses techniques to reveal the underneath layers. In his mind he is achieving the opposite of time. He attempts to uncover the billboard and reveal its original state by removing the pieces of paint on top.
Super Bowl Bound Sports Wall Art
Aaron is constantly worried about color. He strives to capture the often huge and sometimes subtle color variation inherent in vintage artifacts. His use of light, perspective, vantage point, and overwhelming sense of drama can be attributed to his admiration for the works of Michelangelo. Surprisingly, Dr. Seuss is also an influence in how Aaron chooses a vantage point. The works of John Alvin (creator of promotional posters for Star Wars and Lord of the Rings) have also played an important role in Aaron’s creations. He likes how Alvin manipulates light, text and images to create his dramatic imagery.
When asked about artist block, Aaron says he has the opposite problem. He feels he does not have enough time to paint all the things he would like. Between flying from coast to coast doing custom murals for people (yes, he is available for hire!), running his own custom decorating company, Embellishments, and being a husband and dad of 2 wonderful teens, Aaron is one busy artist!
What makes Aaron the most happy is when a child walks into a room that he has designed and their eyes pop and their jaw drops wide in excitement. This is his reward. Aaron takes the vantage point of that
Princess Wall Art for Kids
young child while designing and painting. When he conjures up the child’s reaction to his design he is given the fuel he needs to keep painting.
Aaron now resides in Oregon, and does most of his painting in his pj’s at his home studio.
