CHRIS MARTIN
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Chris Martin received a BFA in Art and Design from Iowa State University and completed an MFA in Furniture Design at the Rhode Island School of Design in 1994. He has run Chris Martin Furniture, where he designs and fabricates studio art furniture, since 1995.  He is also an Associate Professor at the Iowa State University College of Design.

Chris cites Japanese aesthetics, the natural world and fantasy as influences on his work but states, "I have come to realize, however, that there is a deeper, underlying drive influencing my designs. The environment in which I grew up continues to inspire me. As a child I lived in Keokuk, Iowa, a heavily industrialized river town with huge smoke- belching factories, railroad tracks meandering through it, and a lock and dam that still amaze me. I am intrigued by the resiliency of nature and how she manages in some way, to take back what we try to claim from her...This is what drives my work: the manmade in unity with or in contrast to the natural."

Chris Martin's website