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Meet The Artist

Artist Statement 2010

My art has been the vehicle by which I access and document my psychology. My paintings start as an uninhibited release, a place where I express freely. Then I use the circles to help sort through. I have better learned to trust myself in the moment with my medium, and then I see what we created together. This journey, through my painting process, I have discovered so much.

Through this universal visual language, I hope that my work may ignite in my audience new mental and emotional recognitions; a place to ponder and rediscover self. For me the wonderful part is that my circles become others circles when they enter the paintings and move through their own experience of the art.

The self and the ‘selves’ within are represented by the circles in my paintings. The visual happenings captured on the surface of the canvases offer clues and pathways deeper into the self. My work with circles is a process of exploration and restoration to connection.

Since being a child I have practiced art, but my passion for expressionist action painting started when my father died in April of 1998. Perhaps because I had immigrated to Australia the year before and was truly separated from my family, country and culture the sense of loss and disorientation was amplified. This was the origin of my work with circles over a decade ago and this dialogue continues.

Glorious circles are everywhere - in the eyes that see us, the center of flowers, interconnecting links, wheels that turn, in the molecules that bind us and the spiraling cycles of our lives. I suspect that connection to self equals’ connection to all things.

When accessing the work, I ask my friends to try to observe themselves without judgment as they take in the visual stimuli: the colors, patterns, textures and compositions – what do you notice?

‘Where we had thought to travel outward, we will come to the centre of our own existence. And where we had thought to be alone, we will be with all the world.’ Joseph Campbell, The Power of Myth



Born


19 December 1969 South Africa


Education

1986: Completed TE in South Africa with distinctions in both Fine Art and History of Art
1987-8: University of Cape Town BA Architecture
1989-91: University of Cape Town Bachelor of Fine Art, Major History of Art

Experience

1992-96: Worked and later managed the family business dealing in art and jewelry. [Specializing in African art and contemporary South African art and design]
1996: Immigrated to Perth Australia
1996-2005: Started and directed Code Red Art Gallery and Code Orange Design


Caroline Christie has excelled in art and been painting since childhood. Between 1997 and 2004 painting had become secondary to running her well-established art gallery and reputable interior design business in Perth. Code was sold in June 2005. Since then Caroline has focused on her career as an artist.