Among several artists invited to create posters for Share One Planet, Chris Ayers is a special one. He understood the preciousness of the life through his personal experience. After the disaster, he poured his love into the animals, and created a large number of vital and lovely animal images to praise the preciousness of the life.
Poster artwork of Herd Category of Share One Planet competition, by Chris Ayers
Chris Ayers has had a love and fascination with animals and the world since he was a child. And he liked to feature his imagination by pencil. His family encouraged his many creative endeavors, so he had stuck to it since then. He moved to Los Angeles after college to pursue his lifelong dream of becoming a character designer. Things came to a crashing halt, however, when Chris was diagnosed with leukemia, on April Fool’s Day in 2005. Thus began one of the toughest journeys of his life.
But illness never stopped his passion for creation. During the period of treatment, Chris got an idea that is to draw an animal each day to expand the imagination and distract the attention for aiding his healing process. After one year, he began a sketchbook of animal images called The Daily Zoo. Currently he has published two collections of The Daily Zoo drawings, which are acknowledged by many artists and readers. One part of the income will be donated to the charity organizations related to cancers. If you would like to know more about this loving artist, please take one The Daily Zoo home. You will be deeply moved by this small collection of drawings, because it is full of the artist’s appreciation to animals, the passion to life and the expectation to living.
Chris currently is a freelance character designer, who lives with his wife in Los Angeles, still draws an animal a day. Let’s give the best wishes to this brave and strong artist with a heart filled with love and sunshine. We hope that he can get more love and create more artworks in the future.
(Click here to view or buy the books: http://www.chrisayersdesign.com/DZ_home.html)
About Chris Ayers
Chris Ayers grew up in Minnesota surrounded by a family and community that encouraged his many creative endeavors and provided ample fuel for his imagination. After studying art in college he packed his small car to the ceiling and headed west to Hollywood to pursue his lifelong dream of working in the movies. He had no intention of trying to act—he just wanted to make monsters!
Opportunities were found and slowly he started building a promising career working as a character designer. Things came to a crashing halt, however, when Chris was diagnosed with acute myelogenous leukemia, a type of blood cancer, on April Fool’s Day in 2005. Thus began one of the toughest journeys of his life: enduring the physical and emotional rigors of treatment and recovery. Though it shook him, dropped him, bounced him, spun him, and quite literally made him nauseous, the cancer rollercoaster finally slowed down. On the one year anniversary of his diagnosis, Chris enlisted the help of two of his lifelong passions—art and animals—and began a sketchbook called The Daily Zoo with the goal of drawing one animal each day for a year. He hoped it would be a nice challenge for his self-discipline and imagination, but more importantly that it would aid his healing process by giving him a focused opportunity to celebrate the gift of each healthy day.
The initial goal of The Daily Zoo was met but proved to be so therapeutic and rewarding that he kept right on drawing. He’s now in Year Five (day seventeen hundred and something) and has had the opportunity to publish two collections of Daily Zoo drawings which additionally feature his reflections on the cancer journey. Chris currently is a freelance character designer (some past clients have included Sony Feature Animation, Rhythm & Hues, Amalgamated Dynamics, Inc., and Spectral Motion working on films such as Men in Black II, Fantastic Four, The Incredible Hulk, Star Trek, and the Alien vs. Predator films). Chris lives with his wife in Los Angeles, still draws an animal a day, and celebrated five years of remission last summer.
Sample images of The Daily Zoo
To view more please visit Chris Ayers's website: www.chrisayersdesign.com
