S2E7 : Christopher Holt | Drawing a Past Moment, Looking at a Future

Artist Care and Feeding

Christopher Holt is a painter, water-colorist, and fresco artist. A native of Asheville, North Carolina, where he still lives and works among the mountains of Haywood County, its natural beauty continuing to inform and shape his artistry. Christopher grew up painting and drawing, ​eventually finding his way to the art department at University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. There, his attention was captured by the Native American Artist Kimowan Metchewais and he learned much about the creative process as well as storytelling through art. After Chapel Hill, his wanderlust took him to Central and South America, where he was exposed to ancient sites including Copan in Honduras, Tikal in Guatemala, and Chichenitza in Mexico, where he discovered the fresco paintings of Diego Rivera.
Upon returning to Asheville in 2003, Christopher’s path crossed with the legendary artist and fresco master Benjamin Franklin Long IV, who was founding a school in the mountains dedicated to the study of drawing and painting. Christopher quickly became a devoted student at the Fine Arts League of the Carolinas. Over time he became an integral part of the school as well as Long’s fresco work. After a decade of working with Long, Holt established his own studio in Asheville.
Christopher has continued traveling, painting and finding inspiration abroad, always returning to NC to show his work and teach, often working with students in the Asheville City Schools. His recent travels have taken him to Cairo, Egypt, Tuscany and the Dominican Republic where he has facilitated the painting of many large murals in a small village where children of Haitian descent worked alongside Dominican children to complete pictures of peace and community in a country caught up in racial injustice.
Christopher spent much of 2019 at Asheville's Haywood Street Church where he created a 10-by-27-foot Renaissance-style fresco on a wall in the main sanctuary of the small United Methodist church that encompasses and serves the needs of many unhoused or formerly-unhoused people. The church, where Holt had been spending time at its weekly services and famous Welcome Table on Wednesdays—a community meal open to anyone and everyone, served on linen tablecloths and with fine china, catered by some of Asheville's best chefs and cooks. Those who eat and worship together at Haywood Street are individuals carrying all their worldly possessions in ragged backpacks as well as privileged professionals, stay-at-home moms, students and the working poor.
The Haywood Street Fresco, which pictures several dozen members of the church community from diverse backgrounds, is one of hope and unity, reflecting Jesus' Beatitudes. The creation of the fresco has been made into a documentary film, Theirs Is The Kingdom, which filmmakers hope to release widely this spring.
Christopher's website: Kairos Fine Art
Christopher on Insta: @christopherholtfineart
Theirs Is The Kingdom documentary: HERE
Haywood Street Fresco on Insta: @haywoodstreetfresco
​