About Chris

Chris Yates is an independent multimedia artist who lives and works in Butte, Montana.  Primarily known for his handmade wooden jigsaw puzzles, the webcomic Reprographics, helping organize the Puzzle Parley convention, and the Chris Yates Tracking System, Chris also works on sculpture, music, video production, photography and a variety of other weird things.

His focus is on creating whimsical and colorful art of all sorts, hand-crafted at the highest level of quality.

Chris was born on April 21, 1979 in Summit, New Jersey, and grew up next to the Great Swamp in nearby Chatham.  He had a pleasant childhood and through early experiences learning musical instruments and acting in children's theater, quickly realized his creative side.

After a brief stay in Alexandria, Virginia, Chris headed off to the boarding school Choate Rosemary Hall, in Connecticut, where he graduated with several awards for art and theater in 1997.  The quality of the faculty, program and facilities at CRH allowed Chris to try just about every creative avenue he was interested in, from photography to welding; directing to Japanese drumming.  He was also the co-editor of the school's humor magazine, bassist for the Jazz Band, and Head DJ at the radio station.  He was basically like the dude from the movie Rushmore, but he managed to graduate.

Chris went on to Rhode Island School Of Design, in Providence for the next four years.  Here he worked in a somewhat more focused manner, generally working on metal and wood sculpture, but also studying at Brown University for playwriting, set design and experimental electronic music.  Chris was an assistant shop technician for both the Sculpture Foundry and the wood shop.

It was in 1999, during a bleak January at RISD, Chris came up with idea for the Chris Yates Tracking System.  Sick of the notion that students' artwork was critiqued in sterile white gallery rooms, Chris envisioned a series of outdoor sculptures that would be hidden around the country.  Each "device" would have a plaque of some sort that would let the person who happened to find it how to get in touch with the "tracking team".  Chris went on to distribute and document 100 Chris Yates Tracking Devices in 41 states, 7 Canadian provinces, Australia and New Zealand by Spring 2001, and the project became his Senior Thesis.  

At his exhibition, the Tracking System was documented with multiple video screens, emails, testimonials, and movement of the devices, but most importantly large wooden topographic map sculptures depicting the land covered by the project.  After his graduation in 2001, this concept would develop further and lead into his current line of work.

During three summers at RISD, Chris worked at a summer camp in Evergreen, Colorado, eventually running the entire (tiny) art department.  His positive experience in the cool mountain hills made him decide to try living in the Boulder area for a year after college.  Chris was still working on various wood projects in the evenings and weekends,  but from 2001-2007 he's held various day jobs including: portrait photographer, bartender, cabinetmaker, video editor, dog-kennel assembler, large-format printer, signmaker, and he was once the Statue Of Liberty for a week.

Early in the Colorado years, Chris also went on 4 more CYTS Deployment Missions, bringing the device count up to 145, but the project is currently on hiatus.  He also made an awful album of electro-thrash music under the moniker "Death Taco" at some point.

In 2002, Chris began to make more 3D painted wood maps, which he dubbed "Terraforms".  While he did make some modest income from commissions and shows here and there, he generally had a poor experience with local galleries and art/craft shows.  He started marketing more online and producing more as he could, and then one day in April 2004 he ruined a layer of a Terraform, got angry, and chopped it up into little bits on his new scroll saw.

Thus, The Baffler, Chris' signature jigsaw puzzles were born.  Combining the time-honored tradition of hand-cut wooden tray puzzles with his modern, colorful aesthetic, the Bafflers are by far his most popular and unique products to this day.  There are very few people still out there making puzzles this way, and Chris' Bafflers have generated a very enthusiastic international following.  As of May 2025, he's made more than 5,100 original Bafflers.

Also in 2004, Chris began his pseudo-autobiographic webcomic "Reprographics", which people also seemed to like.  It differentiates itself from most comics, as it uses photographs instead of drawings, which is pretty crazy.  Repro ended its run in 2015, when he moved to Ocean City, New Jersey. After six very interesting years of producing his work on a swampy barrier island, Chris moved to Butte and is very happy to live in the mountains again.

Chris has been self-employed since 2008, and sells his work online and around the country at various conventions and events.  

Chris' work has been featured in the Dallas Morning News, Boulder Daily Camera, WIRED, Make, Geek Magazine, BoingBoing, G4, as well as countless blogs and other media outlets.

From 2010 to 2016, three series of production chipboard Bafflers based on Chris’ designs produced by the fine puzzle company Ceaco were released to retailers all over the world. Chris has also collaborated in 2021 with the geniuses at Nervous System to create a line of unique laser-cut puzzles.

In 2012 and 2013 Chris and several of his colleagues decided to make a weekly Youtube show based on odd, dry comedy, called Nothing But Flowers. While it never quite caught on, we had some fun. You can still see all the episodes here.

Since 2018, Chris has also assisted in organizing the Puzzle Parley, a biannual gathering of wooden jigsaw puzzle makers, collectors, restorers, historians and enthusiasts. He primarily takes care of the A/V and graphic design aspects of the convention, and is very proud of the Parley’s Youtube channel, which aims to document and preserve the work, knowledge and skills of this unique community.

When not covered in sawdust, Chris enjoys listening to awesome music, drinking beer, biking and taking care of succulents.  He is also the guy who invented the Poop Sign.