Christopher Tiger

Jerome Christopher Coleman Tiger (Creek-Seminole-Cherokee) had chosen early in life to be an American Indian artist.  He was the son of Jerome Tiger, the trend setting Indian artist whose original style of painting is credited by many as bringing Indian art to the attention of the mainstream of American collectors.   Chris' father died when Chris was only two weeks old, but as Chris grew up he was exposed to the best of American Indian art.  Johnny Tiger, Jr., Chris' uncle, is a nationally acclaimed Indian artist who was impressed with the imagination shown while his young nephew was still in grade school.

Johnny encouraged Chris' talent and helped him enter student competitions.  Among numerous awards won while in junior and senior high school were two Grand Awards for Best in Show and the Francis Rosser Brown Award for Best Protrayal of Heritage in the Annual Student Art Show at the Five Civilized Tribes Museum (Muskogee, Oklahoma).

Chris, like his father, took pleasure in the demand of his artwork; and using numerous styles in his paintings, generated a great variety of patrons.   His art subjects were often reflective of the trials and triumphs of his family and friends, and often integrated into traditional works depicting his American Indian ancestry.

Chris's first print, "Warrior's Image", which he described as "a man traveling through time back to his destiny", was released in 1989, a year before his death in May 1990, at the age of twenty-two.

Original work and prints by Chris are on display at Tiger Art Gallery in Muskogee, Oklahoma.  Chris' art is in private collections across the nation.  His hope was to show his feelings through his art in a style that was his alone.

It could be said of Chris - as it was said of his father after his death in 1967 - that his life was like a meteor that flashed across the sky, dazzling and captivating with his genius, and leaving in his wake a wealth of great beauty of his own creation.