About Chris
Having collected bits and pieces of inspiration through out my life, I had many locked away from childhood and many from the painful decades of HIV/AIDS. I now have tried to make sense of it all forging it into something that honors my fallen friends and my own maturing sexual being. I have put my demons on notice, I am in a fighting mood, instead of letting them control me, I will use them to give me strength. There are many facets to my personality, don't let it confuse you, we are all in here White Fang, rover, Papa Bear, some of the others.
As a young teenager I worked all summer one year to by my dream camera, a canon. I soon became the yearbook photographer and was featured in some local art clubs. In my senior year of High School I split my time between Interning at Greenfield Village as a Photography Management Intern/ and Community College as a fine art major/Political Science major. Much of my free time was spent loudly advocating for civil rights with early organizations such as PFLAG, NGLTF MOHR, CARD and many others.
Don't get the idea that I was your usual suburban teenager. started piercing my self in a ritual of hyper masculine fantasy, art and blood. Late 70 it wasn't common that someone so young was out about fetish role play, but my being so out gave me a power over the hater. By High School graduation I spent most of my time in gay underground in Detroit as a security guard at such places as the IC, Backstreet, Aruba, Outlaw and the big corner lot of Men jos. It was nearby that I soon had my very first apartment in Palmer Park. While a security guard at TNT baths I met my now husband Edward Stratton ( little elf...its the ears.) we bonded in days and began living together within the week. I spent sometime at Wayne State as a Photography Instructors for college of life long learning, but thing in Detroit took a bad urn (look for it in a BLOG)
We loved to Chicago in 1982 just as GRID was appearing, then thy named it AIDS, it was just starting wipe out the gay community in Chicago. For a couple years I went to art school at Columbia College
Due to the death of my best friend, we took over his job as manager of the Pleasure Chest- Chicago where we on dealt with many of the great old guard players, artists, porn stars as well as very well know people that I will not mention. This led me to work in Outreach to hard to reach communities due to the Health department realizing that we knew how to talk out sex like real people. Worked in Harm Reduction Prevention Outreach at some great agencies, where I met many people around the country. We started running from the ghosts of our friends, ft. Lauderdale, South Beach, then back to Chicago where I had the privilege to work as as Assistant Director of the Leather Archives and Museum. Another chance to
Three more tragedies brought us home to Michigan. Where once again I tried to go to school but circumstances brought me back to outreach and harm reduction.*Doing Art behind everyone's back (where there was no pressure.)
2010ish
*Crash & Burn- My long relationship with mental illness caught up with me.
The 2020s
*Ed encouraged me to develop a Studio space and I felt the freedom to grow.
*Finally found a Doctor that has begun to understand, only one since Bella in the early '80s.
*A friend's challenge brought me art again (thanks Furr.)
*Another Plague
*Here I am now, naked to the world...Zipper Neck.
