The double life of Chris McAdoo: Artist and advocate for entrepreneurship
On Saturday, November 2, McAdoo will be the featured artist in the Carson Newman Homecoming Exhibition at the Michael Alvis Art Gallery from 9:30 a.m. to noon.
“The art side is always with me,” Chris McAdoo said over an afternoon coffee.
About half of the Knoxville community knows him as the Chief Experience Officer for the Knoxville Entrepreneur Center (KEC). He’s brought energy to the organization and has helped hundreds of entrepreneurs and makers find their footing. Ask anyone in Knoxville’s start-up scene about Chris McAdoo and they’ll say… “Of course, I know Chris.”
The other half of the community knows McAdoo in a different capacity. They have his genius hanging on their walls or have passed by his murals on their way to the City-County Building. McAdoo is a celebrity artist in Tennessee. Ask anyone in the city’s art scene about Chris McAdoo and they’ll say… “Of course, I know Chris.”
McAdoo said his “double life” isn’t as separate as some may think. He taps into his creative side to develop business strategies and taps into his business side to sell his art.
The artist inside
McAdoo has been working in mixed media since he was four years old. The creative expression of art has always attracted him, and people have always been attracted to his artwork.
He grew up on a farm in Sevierville where his parents owned more than 50 horses. At the age of 12, McAdoo started his first business selling cartoon T-shirts at horse shows.
His successes continued through his young adult years as a painting major at Carson-Newman University in Jefferson County, where he paid off 100 percent of his student loans by the age of 26, exclusively by selling his artwork.
“When we’re going through school, creative pursuits get fed into us as if they’re extra things – or just hobbies… but creativity and expression are essential to us as humans,” he said.
Though McAdoo’s commissions from his work sustained him, he wanted to spend more time around people. It ultimately led to him opening his own branding and strategy studio, Best Behavior Creative Club.
McAdoo made a living selling his art – a situation many artists dream of. So, why start a business?
“I love self-punishment,” McAdoo laughed. “And also, to be truly successful – and happy – you cannot be defined by just one thing.”
Tapping into the business side helped him learn economics, and how to apply those principles to the creative community. In his free time, McAdoo never puts the paintbrush down; instead, he uses the creative outlet as a part of his life’s harmony and balance.
The vessels of life
Around 2007, McAdoo looked out onto the Tennessee River. He was sitting on an old dock by the Island Home airport staring at a stack of old boats piled up near the shore.
“Something was interesting about the shape of the boat. I started to think about it, envision the boat in motion, and what it means to me,” McAdoo said. “So, I sketched that shape over and over again and it literally became the representation of a vessel to me.”
A vessel is literally defined as a ship or a boat; however, more figuratively it is a container that you can put something in that connects two shores.
“For me, this took on another meaning. Our life is full of shores and journeys to get there. The fact is, we’re all in our own vessels going in various directions at any point and time,” McAdoo said.
The broad perspective of this outlook would be that we are all in a vessel between the two shores of life and death – but, McAdoo said to each person it means something different. Everyone is in a vessel from one chapter to the next, with maybe no concrete beginning or knowledge of when the journey will end.
Over the past 15 years as McAdoo has risen in popularity through his vessel series, he has introduced new vessels – sailboats, planes, horses, cars, bikes, and trucks. He has also spoken about the series at several exhibitions and showings, dating back to that 2007 moment on the dock.
You can find his vessel series displayed around town in restaurants, auctions, galleries, museums, corporate offices, and homes.
Also, on Saturday, November 2, McAdoo will be the featured artist in the Carson-Newman Homecoming Exhibition at the Michael Alvis Art Gallery from 9:30 a.m. to noon. The exhibition will run through December 4 and be open for public viewing. At it, he will also unveil a couple of pieces from his latest series, “Manifest.”
Doubling down of the double life
So, how during all of this did Chris McAdoo become the face of the entrepreneur center?
His start-up design company, Best Behavior Creative Club was purchased by a large advertising agency. As part of the agreement, he worked in the management of it for a couple of years.
It was all-consuming, and McAdoo’s life-harmony was out of balance. He was creating less and working more.
“It was a wake-up call for me in 2020, when I got stung by a yellow jacket and went into Anaphylactic shock. The firefighters had to come and revive me, and as they were wheeling me out the door, I asked my wife to grab my laptop,” he said.
Despite almost dying a few hours prior, McAdoo led a 3:00 corporate Zoom meeting that same afternoon.
“My priorities weren’t right, and I saw it clearly that day. So, two weeks later I resigned and spent several months reconnecting with friends and mentors. The opportunity to join KEC came at a perfect time, and it allowed me to approach life with a renewed purpose,” McAdoo said.
Now, he’ll tell you it’s the longest job he’s ever had.
In his role at KEC, McAdoo not only helps founders find their path, but he also helps artists – through The Maker City form careers out of their creative specialties. He would say it blends his two worlds seamlessly.
Mark your calendar for his Carson-Newman Exhibition.
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