Chris Comte has a broad range of experiences that contribute to her artwork. She grew up in western Pennsylvania, where her love for nature developed as she and her family lived near the Monongahela River and picnicked and vacationed in the Pennsylvania State Parks - influences that would impact her life. Her interest in the natural environment continues - today she is a member of the Nature Conservancy, the Sierra Club and has become a Master Gardener.

Always involved in art, Chris has a background of rich experiences. During the Vietnam War, Chris was in the US Navy Nurse Corps. Since that time she has traveled extensively through out the United States as well as Europe and Asia. A wife and mother of two, she has a master's degree in Computer Science and taught Computer Science at Rochester Institute of Technology in Rochester NY. Most recently she has taught professional courses for Microsoft.

Chris studied art at Rochester Institute of Technology, Northern Kentucky University, the Cincinnati Art Academy and privately under Tina Tammaro, Camille Przewodek and Keith Klein.

A resident of Boone County, KY, Chris works at her studio (803B) in Pendleton Art Center in Cincinnatiand shows her art there and in the Art on the Levee Gallery in Newport. Her work has recently been at in the Cincinnati Woman's Art Club 115th Juried Exhibition, "Bringing the Outside In" at the Global Lead Art Gallery, "A Change of Season's" at Gallery Salveo, Baker Hunt's "Forever Flowers" show, "freshART" at the Behringer-Crawford Museum, as well as Incahoots Restaurant and Reality Tuesday Cafe.

Personal Note to old friends and acquaintenances: If you have found this through Google or some other such thing, you may know me as "Ethel Kurfess". I was named 'Ethel' after my grandmother, Ethel McDermott Olver -a woman that I loved and admired. She lost her husband to a tragic disease months after having her third child and was plunged into poverty. She raised her three chilren, including my mother, by giving piano lessons door to door. She lost her youngest, a son, aged 21, to a tragic death at the hands of a drunk driver. From those humble and tragic beginnings, my mother grew to be a strong woman that I really loved and admired - she saw that my three sisters and I had good educations, an appreciation of art, poetry, the natural environent and music. I never liked ( really DISLIKED) the name 'Ethel' but as a young person, felt I was betraying my mother and grandmother by expressing my opinion. As an adult, I decided to drop the use of "Ethel' and to use my middle name of 'Christine'. My marriage to Tom Comte completed my name changes and I am now 'Chris Comte', a name I truly love!