On the “City Lights” series “Speaking of Art,” local artists share insights into their influences, processes and experiences in town. Chris Veal is an Atlanta visual artist specializing in murals and canvas painting, with a particular bent toward politically and socially galvanizing pop art messages in his bright text-and-graphic images.
“Subjects I tend to focus on range from addiction, pollution, traffic, current events,” says Veal. He favors bold outlines and iconographic, often comic-strip-like representations that pop and immediately transmit provocative ideas and attitudes to the viewer.
“When I was younger, I was always the kid that was drawing in class and getting in trouble for drawing, and I never really got out of that phase,” Veal admits.
Moving from his hometown of Milledgeville to Atlanta in his teens, the doodling evolved into graffiti work, followed by a period of bootstrap entrepreneurship painting art on his friends’ bedroom walls. Word of Veal’s talent picked up speed on social media, leading to more and more opportunities that would develop into his professional art career today.
Drawing inspiration from Veal’s friends in the bustling Atlanta art scene, he professes that his favorite space to take in new work in the city is “wherever there’s a new mural going up. The city’s growing so fast, and there seem to be new murals going up every week.”
