Christopher Hughes
He/Him
Rockville, MD
Christopher Hughes is an emerging artist and metalsmith living in Rockville, Maryland.
I am very much a beginner with a little more than six months’ experience working with metal. With this piece I’m working through my perfectionism – learning to accept this work as the finished result that it was meant to be. I’m proud of the result and of myself for being able to look past the faults, mistakes, and imperfections. The process has also been helpful for me to accept myself as I am. What I considered to be my imperfections are really the characteristics that make me who I am. I can begin my next project without worrying about the perfect outcome.
How does your creative practice reflect your experience of living and making as a BIPOC and/or 2SLGBTQIA+ maker?
Moving out of the shadows as an artist at age 50 mirrors my coming out as gay at age 17. Even as I write this, the feelings of risk and doubt in sharing my artwork take me right back to 1992 and revealing the truth of who I am to my family and friends.
Someone asked me then why I chose to come out. In many ways, they pointed out, my life would have been easier if I remained closeted. I told them I just desperately wanted to live and to love, and to do that I felt that I had to be open about who I am.
It’s been a lifelong journey of being true to myself, navigating through trauma along the way. I see this process of learning to express myself creatively as a big step in my development.
copper sheet, patina, trewax, 29/16"h x 45/8"l x 41/8"d 2026What techniques, stories, or materials have been passed down to you, and how are you reimagining them in the present?
I am grateful to all my instructors for teaching and supporting me.
How does your work honor those who came before you while forging new pathways for the future?
All craft is continuity.
Photographs Courtesy of the Artist