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Arts & Entertainment

Young Artist Develops Unique Style

Etowah student plans to attend art school and perfect his already impressive techniques.

Local artist Christopher McCarthy is a senior at busily planning his artistic future. He is a talented painter, usually employing oils as his medium. His work also involves mixed media, graphite and charcoal.

Eighteen-year-old McCarthy's style is difficult to describe because it involves both surrealism and magic realism. His obsessive attention to detail allows his paintings to be multidimensional and visually fascinating. He has contrasting styles at times, one consisting of collage-like, chaotic images and the other more minimalistic.

“It's weird to be that polar. It's not so much that I'm versatile, I just enjoy it all. Stylistically, most things appeal to me. There are few major art movements in general that repel me,” McCarthy said.

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McCarthy's open-minded view of art is apparent in his paintings, which usually feature elements from a variety styles. He especially admires classicism, saying that he became fascinated with the genre at a young age. This high school senior is practically a self-taught artist, having practiced his skills since elementary school.

“In 5th and 6th grade I started teaching myself portraiture with my limited abilities. I'd make my friends sit as still as possible and try to gauge the proportions as best as I could until I achieved a recognizable effect,” he explained.

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With the help of his neighbors, family and teachers, McCarthy said he reached a point where he broke free from using only graphite and charcoal and began to delve into painting. His first painting was a commission involving horses, and he is still willing to doing commissions of any sort for those who desire it.

“I'm completely open to commissions and portraiture. I don't think they inhibit creativity.”

His current preoccupation is his senior project, which is a large painting he works on in one of Etowah's hallways, leaving him open to constant criticism. He said people wandering through the halls distract him, but he is becoming more comfortable working in a public setting because of the situation. He plans to leave the painting for the school when it is finished.

The most influential event in McCarthy's artistic journey was his participation in the Governor's Honors Program in Valdosta. This program involved six weeks of constant artistic training and 39 other devoted young artists.

“GHP was huge. For six hours or more a day I would be painting, and sometimes sculpting or drawing. Being in an environment with other dedicated people with lots of supplies and time and complete liberty was a good experience,” he said.

McCarthy plans to attend the Maryland Institute College of Art, a formidable producer of trained painters. His goal is to live comfortably by making art, a common aim among the stereotypical starving artists. He is also bilingual, and wants to become semi-nomadic by living off his art throughout Europe.

“I'm ambitious and I'd very much like to become a working artist, and that's about the extent of it. I'm just glad to know what I want to do."

He said he wants to be a notable artist and admires exceptional artists Salvador Dali, Hans Holbein and Gerhard Richter. All of these famous artists have relatively distinct styles, something that McCarthy says he will discover for himself along the way while improving his techniques. However, he has already identified some of his own stylistic qualities.

“I cling to three aspects: objective content or subject matter, contrast, and irrationality,” he explained.

Being a native Georgian, McCarthy appreciates the recent renovations to downtown Woodstock, especially .

“I feel like they are actually doing a lot to develop Woodstock as an artistic setting.”

McCarthy is a propagator of art and wants his fellow young artists to succeed. His advice for supporting local artists: attend galleries and offer support.

“For high school age or younger, encouragement, criticism, and direction. I don't think I would have made any of my paintings without my teachers, they've done a lot,” he said. “More than I can imagine. I can only hope I get teachers like them in college.”

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