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CHRIS DACRE • birthed in 1971, Elk Grove Village, IL
Photo by Tomiko Jones  
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Every kid has a dream growing up- mine was to be a racecar driver. At 17 years old I joined the Air Force, as a Security Police, and a month after high school I was off to Texas for basic training.

I was stationed in Germany guarding airplanes and then in North Dakota watching nuclear missiles. After that I moved to Tampa and worked for the Port Authority and watched ships roll in and out of the bay. At that same time I joined the Air Force Reserves and retrained as an Emergency Medical Technician for an Aero-medical Evacuation Squadron.

This all sounds very exciting I know, but there were some drawbacks to choosing these jobs as career paths. I knew that if I didn't make a move, my future would end up like the guys I was working with. Someone I knew lived in Birmingham, AL. so I gave it a try. I studied at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) and received a BA in Graphic Design. It was at UAB that I discovered printmaking.

Then I went off to Tucson where I attended graduate school at the University of Arizona. A year after graduation I took off to South America for eight months of traveling and a two-month artist residency in Rosario, Argentina.

Seattle was home for the year after South America until I received a call to teach Printmaking at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces, NM where I have been since August of 2009. Summer will be spent teaching Experimental Media in a Master of Arts program at Drury University in Springfield, MO. Where I end up afterwards is yet to be determined...

                                                                                                      

                                                                                                                  2011

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 





 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

THE OLD ONE

Chris Dacre was born in a small farming community, rightly-called, Elk Grove Village in Illinois. Shortly after his birth, his family picked up and moved to the rolling hills of Richland County, Ohio. As a child, he picked apples from the family orchard and harvested gold from his grandfather's mine. After high school Chris joined the Air Force, who sent him to Texas and New Jersey for training and then shipped him out to Germany in support of Operation Desert Storm. While in Germany, Chris was able to grow a beard, take leave and trek across the European continent in search of his Bohemian roots, which he never found.

After being discharged from the military Chris settled in Florida where he learned the art of security through the rigorous training of the Tampa Port Authority. Growing weary of the beauracratic society, Chris moved to North Dakota where he swept the floors in his Uncle's automotive repair shop in exchange for a small bedroom off the side of the garage. During the long winter nights Chris taught himself how to draw by copying the cartoons from the Sunday comics of the Minot Gazetteer.

Growing restless and weary of the small town life, Chris finally started his schooling in Birmingham, Alabama where his Grandmother's family was from. After completion of his undergraduate degree in graphic design from the University of Alabama at Birmingham, Chris moved to Tucson where he completed his MFA in printmaking from the University of Arizona.

He just finished a tour of South America where he had many brushes with death and is now embarking on a new chapter of his life as a holiday lighting installer in Seattle, Washington.

*Some of this is true

Chris has exhibited work both nationally and internationally including: Argentina, Brazil, Bulgaria, China, Denmark, Ireland, United Arab Emirates and New Zealand