Christopher Hartmann’s bodies seem to escape the canvas and convey emotions that are engendered from empty, alienated, or fractured relationships. Even though Hartmann’s works are not directly about himself, they remain deeply personal. Like his own feelings, the emotions Hartmann’s subjects possess are frequently contradictory, complex, and ambiguous; often including the affect of skin touching skin. In Not here to kill time, Hartmann depicts two figures with their arms around each other’s shoulders. Both individuals are wearing blue, somber clothing, and both appear terribly sad and troubled, neither looking at the other, but linked together as if their continued survival is dependent on the bond they have with one another