A chance encounter led us to work with Christopher Bettig, a Los Angeles based artist with an interesting background. Of French and American decent, Chris graduated from Maryland Institute of College of Art with a BFA and went on to start The Mountain Label, his own design studio. The Mountain Label’s focus is on capturing elements on the beauty of every day life and his work has been featured in galleries and magazines worldwide. If you’re not already familiar with his work, we are proud to introduce his work to you through this collaboration.

Inspiration

Everything and anything. it could be plants outside my window, a tv show, music, a random phone conversation with my mom… but I do think that the things that have had the most influence in my life have been the many trips I’ve been on. The few trips to Japan were HUGE, India was also very influential and inspiring.. not to mention all the amazing art & artists out there, Charles & Ray Eames, Christian Boltanski, Piet Mondrian, Olle Eksel, Geoff McFetridge, Milton Glaser, Alexander Girard, Thomas Campbell. Phil Frost, Jessica Stockholder, Phoebe Washburn, Barry Mcgee, Kami, Christian Marclay… I could go on all day. Music was always really importantto me, but I won’t bore you with a list of bands as well.

Working Environment

I have to feel comfortable in my studio in order to work well… it’s been rough this last year as my place is really small.

Working Process

I don’t like just working on one thing at a time, the more diversity in ongoing projects the better. If I have a solo exhibition, some shoes to design, a website to construct and some new prints I need to pull… that is when I’m the most comfortable and the happiest.

Motivation

To be honest, I don’t really know. I’ve always had it, and I work all day everyday.Even when things are slow and I don’t have very many projects on my schedule, I’m always working on something until 2 AM.

Reading

Not a fan. Blogs and magazines and that’s about it. I was a literature major before I transferred to art school and I think that was the end of it for me. Reading became such a chore as there was always 10 different books I had to be reading at any given time, and I was never able to enjoy them with all the ridiculous deadlines… now reading still carries that stigma for me and it gets me stressed out. It’s unfortunate. It’s like when I broke my wrist, I always wore a watch and after wearing a cast for 3 months I’ve always hated having anything on my arms including long sleeve t’s.

Most Inspiring Person

My dad.