Hi, my name is Chris Benavides and I live in Avon Lake Ohio with my wife Tina. I have two grown children and have worked as a professional Illustrator for the American Greetings Corporation for nearly forty years. At 17 I was accepted into the Cooper School of Art and upon graduating I was recruited by AG and have worked as a designer and illustrator in several departments and capacities. 

My work has been juried into the BayArts juried exhibition in Bay Village, Ohio as well as the annual American Greetings juried fine art show. My work has also been accepted into the Scottsdale Artist's School's Best and Brightest competition. I have pieces in private collections as well as having my work purchased by American Greetings to be part of their permanent corporate collection for their new world headquarters in Westlake, Ohio.

Although I've had a very rich and fulfilling career over a span of nearly 40 years, in recent years I have felt a call to express my artistic vision more personally and so beyond the education that one receives as a professional in the commercial art world of illustration, I've continued to try to grow in my fine art aesthetic through the workshop experience, learning under several great instructors such as Michael Malm, Bryce Cameron Liston, Stanka Kordic, Jeffrey Watts, and Daniel Gerhartz. Through my long experience and love of the human form and the desire to relay it's beauty in an evocative manner, My hope is that I will create art that may move others, either in ways similarly to how I been moved personally, or in other ways unique to the viewer.