Welcome Home, ‘Ssippi

by Kelly Daniels
Photo by Aaron Farley
April 5, 2006

He calls himself Christopher “Ssippi” Wessman. An L.A. painter, cello player and bassist is back in town. Ssippi, a Jackson native, is here for a show to display his recent paintings on Thursday, April 6, from 5-8 p.m., inside the Studio/Chane skateboard shop in Jackson’s Fondren neighborhood.

The messy-haired coffee addict has a style that he describes as indescribable. “I’m not so sure how to talk about my style, or why I even chose to paint the way I do,” Ssippi said, explaining that his free form might be due to a lack of “education.”

After graduating from high school, Ssippi enrolled in a few college classes, but decided that academia was not for him. While painting sets for the Coen Brothers’ movie, “Oh Brother Where Art Thou,” the workers from L.A. told him he should come out West.

“I figured ‘What do I have to lose?’” he said. Ssippi packed and drove to California from Jackson with only $200. “It’s been six and a half years since then ... a very amusing trip,” he said.

Ssippi’s technique has evolved into one that expresses a dichotomy, an illustration of vibration or movement.

“Basically, several years ago, I had a habit of doing these gestural drawings in sketch pads and wanting to do them on a larger format. I decided to try painting the lines on a canvas that I would have otherwise drawn with a pen on a piece of paper,” Ssippi said. “I would then fill in various spaces with color to make the image or character stand out more.”

Some of Ssippi’s art has been painted on skateboards, not necessarily a new invention. “I always have old boards lying around,” he said. “I’ve been skateboarding for 20 years, and it just seems like a natural element in my life.”

Music has played a central role in Ssippi’s gestural style. “I’d say music inspires me the most,” he said. “I started doing these gestural drawings at concerts where you couldn’t take a camera. I’d just do drawings of the band. The gratification I got from painting could always beat watching television.”

Ssippi didn’t begin recreational painting until 2002, but he seems to have developed a refreshing style.

Ssippi never sits. In the middle of art-show planning, the artist-musician is preparing for a show at the Walt Disney Concert Hall in L.A. “I will play the bass with 99 other electric guitarists,” he said. He has recently had art shows in New York City and Portland.

He paints sets for high-profile movies for 10-12 hours a day. If the set needs a stairwell to look like marble, he has to take the time to make it look like the real deal. But that’s just his living money. Ssippi works so he can paint creatively, play music creatively and skateboard creatively, combining all of them at whim.

“I see so many people living their life and not having anything to show for it,” he said. “If I ever become old, I would want to say I did this or that.”

By “this or that” he means endlessly performing and creating.