Becoming the world’s greatest painter of customized flames doesn’t happen overnight.
So, how did it all begin?

Born in New York City, Cris and his family moved to beautiful South Florida when he was a young boy. As with most kids the Florida ocean surf was something he found irresistible and soon Cris found himself swimming and surfing at the early age of eleven. Cris would find himself for hours waiting and surfing the perfect wave. During his surfing years he would observe the sharks and sea life around him, at the time little did he know that the subject of his love would be the growth of his artistic talent.

When Cris was fourteen his family moved back to New York after having spent eight years in Florida. Being away from the beach, Cris seemed to be lost…but he found a new passion, Hot Rods! His father took him to the Lead East Car Show where he saw in person for the first time a Hotrod painted with flames. He said “I was blown away by a flame job on a ’32 Ford; it was a candy teal with ghost flames”. Wow! do I need to learn to do that “he thought to himself “. Like all teenage boys, Cris wanted to have a fast car. His first was a ’68 Plymouth Road Runner. It was a classic muscle car and his first hands on experience in painting.
When he graduated high school Cris threw his tools and surfboard into the Road Runner and headed back to South Florida to attend College. One day he walked into an art gallery and saw a bronze sculpture of a dolphin. He turned to his friend and said “Wouldn’t that look cool with a flame job on it”. Soon thereafter he came across a taxidermy bull shark from his friend and decided to apply his flame technique on this shark – “candy red with gold flames”. It took Cris only one week to finish the piece and he hung it up in his shop. Clients coming by would be amazed with the shark and many would offer to buy it. Cris purchased more mounts and his creativity was one of awe and wonder!
The first shark Cris placed in a gallery for sale lasted 3 hours on the wall before it was sold, the rest of his success soon followed. For the most part, Cris has given up custom paint jobs on cars and motorcycles and now works exclusively on the mounts, creating eye candy collected by many people, including other artists and rock stars.