Chris Peterson grew up in the foothills of Timpanogos along Utah’s Wasatch Front. During his twenties, he served an LDS Mission to the South Bronx, studied painting at BYU and Kansas City Art Institute, spent time living and painting in New York City and took semesters off to explore the wild corners of the American West.

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In 2001, Chris pivoted from studio artmaking to pursue a graduate education in conservation, education, and community-building work. Graduate studies at the University of Utah earned Chris an M.P.A. in Nonprofit Management & Environmental Policy and an M.S. in Environmental Humanities focusing on conflict resolution and leadership development.

 

His organizational work during this time included Colorado River restoration and tribal coalition-building, charter school co-founding, conservation leadership development, teaching as K-6 art specialist, rural development humanitarian work in East Africa and South Asia and directing the Sorenson Unity Center’s civic engagement and arts programs for Salt Lake City.

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In 2009, Chris began moonlighting on murals and organizing community arts and youth-centered park visioning projects as a strategy for combating nature deficit disorder”. He worked with various organizations to provide youth arts programming, including community murals with Ugandan and Cambodian youth and students across Utah.

 

In 2017, he was commissioned to install a 45 foot jaguar mural, inspiring him to restart his studio practice to refine his painting and design processes around wildlife concepts. His practice today includes mixed-media studio paintings, large scale murals, and placemaking projects and custom installations.

 

In 2022, Chris partnered with the Utah Wildlife Federation to launch the Utah Wildlife Walls Project: A statewide arts, science and engagement campaign to celebrate wildlife in every county, including the installation of 29 wildlife murals; one in each county.  Chris is the principal of Chris Peterson Studio LLC., based in Holladay, Utah