Please note that unfortunately, Christina is no longer in this studio. She is actively created from her home studio– but I loved this insight into her creative world.
Christina Foard is above the clouds– literally and figuratively. Her new studio space sits high above downtown Jacksonville in the AT&T building. How could she not be over the moon? This is her view, ya’ll!
Despite the breathtaking view or perhaps, in part, because of it, Christina admits her new studio was a bit overwhelming when she first moved in. An empty office space, originally intended for row upon row of cubicles, proved challenging to figure out how to best utilize as an art studio. But a huge advantage to so much space? Christina has room to breath and room to create.
Ditto goes for her three kids, who are often at the studio with her, sometimes for hours on end. There is plenty of room for them to run around, even skateboard(!) throughout the studio and Christina has set up a “living room” so that she and the kids have a place to relax while she’s in the studio.
There is also room for Christina, the artist, to “play”. When stuck for direction or just needing to get some creative juices flowing, she can plop herself down on the floor and play with paint and paper or stand over it and do some “Pollock-style” action painting. If that won’t get your painting mojo working, nothing will.
Christina’s work is autobiographical– each piece is about a particular time, place, person or memory and is often used as a kind of catharsis, a way of working through a particular memory and replacing what may have been a negative with a positive. Though a lot of her work is technically representational ( centered around recognizable objects ), it is also highly symbolic. Circles and ribbons have begun popping up in Christina’s work lately, often symbolizing the intrusion of a chaos of thought on a peaceful mind.
Just as her life is constantly changing and evolving, so too, is Christina’s work. For this artist, it is more about the process of creating than a finished “marketable” product. ( Though people do respond to her work and it sells quite well ). The paintings she creates aren’t necessarily “precious”, she will often go back and not just tweak but completely rework a piece so that it hardly resembles its former self.
The pieces pictured below, for instance, are works in progress.. they may not exist as you see them a week from now.
This new space is allowing Christina to grow as an artist like never before. She is filled with ideas and there are stacks of new canvases just waiting for paint.
The new studio is also giving her a chance to venture into collage and sculpture. She has wiped her slate clean of exhibitions and shows until early next year, to give herself time to rejuevenate, reinvigorate and explore where her art will take her. I can’t wait to see where the journey leads!
You can see more of Christina’s work on her Pick of the Crop page here at Artsy Forager or drop by her website.
