Hudson Christie. Photo by Christina Gapic.
Illustration from Work Life Balance by Hudson Christie.

Hudson Christie’s medal award-winning project Work-Life Balance depicts people who must juggle their incompatible jobs and hobbies, sometimes in a disturbing juxtaposition. Here’s how he describes it:

My project was called Work-Life Balance, and it depicted ten people resorting to multi-tasking in order to make room for their hobbies.

What inspired you and motivated you to do this project?

I was attracted to hobbies as a subject in my thesis because they have a really great earnest candor surrounding them. The notion of taking hobbies, which are this really harmless thing, and putting them into situations that actually make them harmful was really funny to me.

What part of the process of creating this project did you learn the most from?

The sculpture/photography approach I used for my thesis is something I’ve only been developing for over a year now, so there was obviously a lot of growing to do in my technique. A big difference is how many corners I can cut now. I work a lot more efficiently today than I did in September.

What aspect of this project are you the most proud of?

I am happy that I was able to make ten pictures that actually make sense to people 95 per cent of the time. It was always so frustrating when I would work for hours on an illustration but it would be totally illegible, just because I lacked the know-how to make images “readable.”

How did you react to the news that you won a medal for your work?

I was very excited. I remember shouting and hi-fiving the wall, and then calling my mom.

What’s your fondest memory from your studies at OCAD U, and what will you miss the most?

The immersion in peers and professors that you get at OCAD U is a very unique thing that I will really miss. It becomes a lot harder to get that constant artist-to-artist contact once you’re done, especially with such a variety of people.

What are you planning to do next?

There are some installation opportunities opening up for me that I’m currently working on, during which time I’ll be developing my next photography series and hopefully picking up more illustration or animation jobs, which are really fun.

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