Chris is a local artist, author and open water marathon swimmer from Port Moody, BC.
Chris grew up in an artistic home in Coquitlam, BC, where embracing art was a huge part of life. After Chris graduated, she had wanted to pursue a career in accounting, but her parents chose art for her.
For day to day work, Chris is a Information Technologist working in Microsoft applications. As the last few years, she has been credited for building many websites for non-profit organizations, and loves the creativity of digital art.
Chris graduated from the Fine Arts Program at Kwantlen Polytechnic University in 1987. and is currently enrolled at Emily Carr University with hopes to complete Bachelor of Fine Arts.
Chris’ art is very diverse, and she works in many different mediums. Depending on the season, her choice of media changes. In the winter months, she will bring out the knitting needles and work with traditional scandi patterns. However most of the year she works on watercolour painting and often spends some time photographing. Her interest in is in night photography. And is exploring deep space and blue hour.
Chris is an marathon swimmer and part-time coach, for Tri Balance. Chris began training under Master TI Coach, Teresa Seibel for a couple years to achieve her first marathon swim of 12 and 18 km in 2022.
Chris has spent some time training under Canadian Olympian, Brent Hayden, to continue her journey in swimming, with a goal to get to the BC Senior games in 2025.
She recently became a certified coach with Triathlon Canada. Working with athletes gives her a sense of joy and she loves to teach new skills, so her athletes flourish.
Before Chris started swimming, her godchildren called her Aunty Fish, because her sweet “Dude” couldn’t say Chris… well 17 years later, and the name still sticks, but has taken on a whole new meaning, since she became a marathon swimmer. To her godchildren Aunty Fish will always be her name, and for everyone else, it is Miss Fish.
To learn more about Chris’ swim, please visit Tribalance.ca
Christina Ostenstad 