There’s something about the Valley that makes it appealing to transplants from both coasts—even sight unseen. Born and raised in Los Angeles, in 2011 Christopher Palbicki and his wife took that leap.
Palbicki is a self-taught painter in acrylics who acknowledges his work is influenced by where he grew up. “I’ve had some people tell me that my art looks like the West Coast,” he says. “Having grown up in L.A. and spent 31 years there, the challenge is to see if, in Minnesota, people are on board with this kind of stuff.”
However, it is Palbicki’s meditation practice, as well as immersion in the culture of Eastern mysticism, that has been the core inspiration for his work. “That’s really influenced the focus; everything I do is about awakening to our higher consciousness,” Palbicki says.
Palbicki’s art has been displayed at ArtReach St. Croix galleries, as well as Art-A-Whirl in Minneapolis. Palbicki’s new project, called Om Made Studios, is a creative platform that he hopes will help connect artists globally—ideally artists on a similar path to his own. “The ultimate goal is to have people from all over the world share their creative work, and even their writing, which all pertains to this idea of meditation and waking up our consciousness,” he says.
Palbicki’s work has been met with mixed reviews. “I think my stuff is not traditional, and I think people will think of it as illustration more than anything else,” Palbicki says. But, he says, “Art is art, and I don’t care if it’s illustration or fine art. If it’s technically interesting and if it’s trying to say something, I’m on board with it.”
