Name | Nickname | Age: Chandler Rawlins | Chan the Man, Dr. Raw | 35
Birthday | Astrology: December 3, 1985 | Sagittarius
Pronouns | Sexual identity: He/him | Heterosexual
Birthplace | Raised: Los Angeles, CA | Baltimore, MD
Residence: Deanwood
Occupation: Artist, Art Professor
Faceclaim: Ben Barnes
TRIGGER WARNINGS: car accident tw, death tw, disability tw, drugs tw, alcohol tw, DUI tw, trauma tw, child endangerment tw
1985- Chandler Walt Rawlins is born in Los Angeles, California to Kathy and Kevin Rawlins. He is their only child
2000- Chandler’s father dies in a car accident. His mother is permanently disabled from the accident. She and Chandler move to her hometown of Baltimore, Maryland to be close to family.
2002- Chandler begins selling his artwork and is featured in small, local galleries in Baltimore.
2004- Chandler graduates from high school
2008- Chandler graduates with a Bachelors in Fine Art from Brown University in Providence, RI.
2010- Chandler graduates with a Masters in Fine Art from Boston University in Massachusetts before being accepted into a PhD program at Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris. He moved to France in the fall. His work is quite popular and sells well there.
2012- Chandler graduates with a doctoral degree in Fine Arts but chooses not to stay abroad. He misses his family, so he moved back home to the states.
2014- Through a mutual friend, Chandler meets Elodie’s mother. She becomes his muse for a time, but their relationship isn’t stable.
2015- Elodie is born. Shortly after, Chandler and Elodie’s mother break up. Before Elodie’s first birthday her mom is arrested and Chandler assumes primary custody. Chandler buys a house in Deanwood for himself and Elodie.
2016- Chandler meets Carolina Weiss at one of his exhibits. They go on a few dates. The timing is bad for them. Carly is only visiting town and Chandler isn’t able to commit to her wilder lifestyle. They break up. He is still inspired by their brief connection and incorporates her into several pieces of his work.
2020- Chandler has a piece hung in the National Gallery of Art in D.C. His daughter begins Kindergarten.
2021- While teaching at Georgetown, Chandler realized his ex-fling and former muse, Carly, is in his class. At the end of the spring semester he asks her on a date.
The Rawlins only had one child. A son they named Chandler Walt. Walt after the infamous Walt Disney, for whose company his father worked. Chandler’s dad was an animator, and the beginning inspiration for the young Rawlins boy’s artistic passion. Even before he could write his own name he was painting. Colors on canvas without rhyme or reason that just felt right. His father tried to push him into animation too, but Chandler didn’t want to make art for anyone but himself. Quickly his aspirations blossomed far beyond the achievements of his father, and his wide blue eyes drew wonder from the likes of Picasso, Kandinsky, Dalí, and Duchamp. For the first time in his life he thought he’d found himself, only to lose his dad. Mr. Rawlins didn’t understand Chandler’s work. It was very avant-garde, and quite often pushed the boundaries of what was appropriate or made people comfortable. You’ll never sell a single piece, his old man had said, and I’m okay with that Chandler retorted back.
In the summer before his first year of high school, on a family road trip to the Redwood’s of California, Chandler and his parents were in a car accident. His father died on impact, and his mother was permanently disabled by the accident. Chandler’s father’s passing away was a difficult loss for the teenager. There were many unresolved feelings towards his father, both as a boy and as an artist. All his grief came out in his art that would, later, go on to be the first piece of work Chandler ever sold. Shortly after the accident and his father’s passing, his mother moved them back to her hometown of Baltimore Maryland to be close to her side of the family. It was the first time in his life he’d ever experience some semblance of siblings in his cousins. They made life in a new place fun, and a brooding, loss stricken boy a little less so.
For college Chandler majored in Fine Arts at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. It was like a dream. All day, every day, engrossed in his work. Studying the creations of great artists, past and present, while honing his own craft. His work continued to remain unique, although not unsellable like his father had forecast. Chandler sold a lot of his work. After obtaining his masters in Fine Arts from Boston University, he used the funds to move to Paris and begin a research program at Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts. For as hard as he worked he had way more fun. Both in art and in love. His life a revolving door of woman who continually inspired his work. Until they didn’t anymore. His mother would be disappointed to see her well raised son a womanizer, but she was many thousands of miles away, and he was a slave to his art. Which demanded a muse.
However much like a home away from home Paris felt, Chandler missed his family. His mother was getting older. Many of his cousins had begun to start their own families. He wanted to be there to see it, so after obtaining his PhD he accepted a teaching position at Georgetown in Washington D.C. as an associate professor in their fine arts department. The university provided him funds and a space to continue his work. During a model call for the university he met the first American woman to really inspire his work. A spitfire named Brooklyn whose chaos was a crippling kind of addiction. She brought out the worst in Chandler, yet the best in his work. Their nights together were a blur of drugs, alcohol, and sex. It wasn’t a surprise to anyone but them when Brook ended up pregnant. A baby changed everything for Chandler. He immediately straightened up and did his best to keep the mother of his child on the same path.
Although, his best would not be good enough. A month after their baby’s birth, a daughter named Elodie, Brooklyn was off the wagon again. Her reckless behavior coupled with a newborn and work was exhausting, but Chandler never gave up on her. Not until she was arrested. It was the worst night of his life. Brook had their daughter for the night while Chandler attended a campus event, but she drank too much and chose to drive. The pair crashed into a utility pole. When he heard the news he was instantly taken back to his own car accident, and what it had cost him. Immediately, he cut all ties with Brook and sought full custody of their daughter. The courts granted it to him. With Elodie’s mother in rehab there wasn’t much of a fight, and even after she got out. She at least knew Chandler was what was best for their daughter. He bought a house for himself and Elodie in Deanwood. A modest home in a neighborhood full of other families. It’d been a long time since he’d lived in suburbia, but he found a way to acclimate. For her, for his daughter, for Elodie.
Life as a single father and full time professor didn’t allow Chandler the opportunity to date. Not that he really wanted to, anyway. His ex left the worst kind of taste in his mouth. So, despite all of his mother’s many attempts to set him up, Chandler stayed single. Until he met a woman, Carolina Weiss, at one of his art galleries. He should’ve known better the moment he saw her, the moment his brain started turning over portrait after portrait of her, but something in Chandler couldn’t control it. The way a new muse took hold of him was powerful, and he pursued her for weeks. They were all passion and paint. In their short time together, Chandler churned out an entire collection, but she was wild and free. Not at all like the chaos Brook brought into his life, but something entirely different. Something more potent and addicting, and Chandler got scared. The relationship ended and Carly left the city, but he still thought of her often.
In the fall of 2020, Chandler’s daughter began kindergarten. They hadn’t heard from Brooklynn in several years. With the help of his mother and immediate family the absence was well filled, and they considered themselves happy. It didn’t even occur to Chandler how lonely he was until he saw her again. The woman from the gallery, Carolina Weiss, now a student in one of his Spring classes. It complicated things immensely, but it felt like kismet. After all the time that had passed. He wasn’t afraid anymore and bided the semester before asking Carly on a date. Just being around her has reinvigorated his muse, and Chandler is back to popping out paintings left and right. He can’t get enough of her, but she’s also not the only woman in his life that requires his attention.
Chandler is written by Ash.
