Though born in New York City, Christopher Cousins was raised in Oklahoma where he was greatly influenced by the various artistic expressions of American Indian culture. As a teenager he traveled through Europe and was awed by the power and beauty of Medieval and Renaissance art and saw immediately the connections between the religious yearning in European art and the spiritual themes in Native American expression. It was at this early age that he came to believe that art, specifically painting, was the only language in which he could truly express himself. After graduating with a BFA from Boston University Cousins moved to NYC and quickly became disillusioned: “I wasn’t interested in social content, criticism or in pop imagery, I didn’t have a clever marketable angle nor did I want to come up with one. For me, there was no reason to paint unless it was to address core existential issues. Maybe that’s an excuse, maybe I was just afraid, but I stopped painting.” He didn’t pick up a brush for over ten years. Cousins has worked in various jobs over the years: as a bartender in NYC, a horse breaker and construction worker in Colorado, he even owned a bookstore in Mexico for a while. In the late 80’s he returned to NYC and achieved success as an actor. Though he kept up with drawing, the need to paint gnawed at him through the years. Finally something snapped. Something awakened in him and he found himself painting again. He let go of the need to understand why or what he was painting, he worked with no intention of showing; he just needed to paint. As Cousins describes it, “ I felt like I was working something out with each new painting…. Even now I never know exactly where a new work will take me. There is no map, no guide, only instinct and, one hopes, intellect to guide me.” Christopher Cousins started showing his work in 2000 in the Los Angeles area. In 2004, he joined Pharmaka, a group of like-minded L.A. based artists who “…believe in the power of painting as a visual and emotional language …to share our truths with the viewer through the very visceral act of painting.” In 2005, he participated in his first international exhibition in Venice, Italy. Christopher Cousins is represented by The Lowe Gallery. Christopher now lives in Los Angeles with his wife, Laurie, and his daughter, Sequoia.