Sometimes artists have muses, I am no exception. Muses are often their source of inspiration. Muses give the artist a sense of passion about something. My muses are words – and the concepts they conjure up for me. Words never cease to inspire me which is why I call myself a conceptual artist and why I write a blog and about beautiful moments in the day.
Posted on May 14 2018
Should the values we give to art be subjective or objective? Not an easy question to answer. For many of my blog posts lately I have argued for the artists self – the individual to be in a work of art in order for the creative object to be valued and treasured and defined as “art.”
Posted on May 10 2018
I frequently get the question how long did it take you to create that work. My standard answer is I started it in kindergarten and just finished it today. The person asking looks and me with my very grey hair questioningly. How does one calculate the time it takes to paint a picture – a life time is a long time.
Posted on May 09 2018
The true artist needs to be selfish. Since our culture does not provide an “easy” way for artists to survive it is easy for the artist to fall into the trap of making and selling what others want and like.
Posted on April 24 2018
40x60 I have been working on this piece for about 4 weeks off and on. Kept looking at it - thinking thinking actually over thinking the work. Started to fix it - what a mistake - I always know it's a mistake to go into a piece once it has remained on my walls for some time and I have done nothing to it. I should have said - it is done. But I didn't - and now it no longer exists it is under lots of yellow. grrrrrr. Anyone ever do that? That was a huge canvas - 40x60. GrrrrInterested in the original artwork or a print? Contact Christine for more information. © Christine Alfery, Lac du Flambeau WI. Must obtain written permission for use.
Posted on April 23 2018
Which is more important to you in your art creations, your own personal self and values, or social approval of what you are creating? If you have the liberty to be yourself in a group are you then free? Can you then create something that others would have never thought of and feel good about it?
Posted on April 17 2018
All this is a personal enterprise – it is real, it speaks to today and our need to rethink individuality in the arts. Our need to value art not for it’s social commentary, or historical documentation but for its stubbornness to still scream out for the individual to speak. The individual is not created through a social collective.
Posted on April 16 2018
meta content='I have picked up the pieces of the often repeated painted concept of motion, movement, and tried to see them anew, fresh, filled with a new way for life to continue, in perpetual motion, in the circle of life, and put them in my work called "The Marble Game."' property="og:description">
Posted on April 12 2018
If you do follow your bliss you put yourself on a kind of track that has been there all the while, waiting for you, and the life you ought to be living is one you are living. ~Joseph Campbell
Posted on April 12 2018
When people ask me how do I come up with my ideas in my work, I describe to them the feeling I get when I stand before a large body of water, I am so small, and tell them that the ideas come from the connection between me and this vastness. I paint possibilities. I paint with as much childlike freedom as I can gather as an adult, encumbered in an adult world. I think – how can I think differently from what is out there and already been done, how can I think like myself, how can I think like the freedom of a child, unencumbered, playing in the mud or a sandbox or going to the magical place like a circus where impossible things happen.
Posted on April 03 2018
meta content='Jesus commands "You shall open wide your hand to your brother, to the needy and to the poor…” This question was modernized in Star Trek when Spock states, “logic clearly dictates that the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.”' property="og:description">
Posted on April 02 2018
What I discovered later after I left grad school that; the discussions were based on power and where the power was, who had the power and how to get the power from them. And the central points of the discussions were based on reality versus mysticism.
Posted on March 28 2018
The concept of artist has changed. When one thinks of artist one frequently thinks of the masters and skilled craftsmen applying their acquired techniques perfectly to whatever it is they are producing. The concepts of creator or creative, which is the one I personally like, has taken up the empty space that the notion of “artist” once held.
Posted on March 26 2018
The wind can’t be whispering when you fly a kite. At least when you are a beginner anyway. The wind needs to howl like a lion, surround you and your kite and lift you both.
Posted on March 23 2018
meta content='Watch an interview with Christine about her show "The Journey" at the Thelma Sadoff Center for the Arts.' property="og:description">
Posted on March 22 2018
The authentic, unique individual self is not created by a trend – just like authentic, unique, one of a kind art works are not created by a trend. The self of the artist – can only appear in the work if the artist knows themselves and that doesn’t happen with trends.
Posted on March 19 2018
I watched a little boy in a green shirt run as fast as he could to the gate that opened to the board walk. Running down the boardwalk the little green shirt went and as soon as the feet of the little boy could go hit the sand the arms of the little green shirt stretched out and the little boy began to twirl in circles running as he twirled. How long has it been since I have felt that free?
Posted on March 07 2018
Artists frequently ask themselves, "what makes an artwork good? Why did that painting win a prize and mine didn't?" Because I find it very challenging to compete internationally with my work, and because I find it much more rewarding that trying to find a gallery who will handle my work and be a good match for the both of us, I find I ask myself these two questions often.
Posted on March 02 2018
A new symbol is emerging in my work. It is a circle that surrounds a dot. I asked myself why in the world as I creating this symbol over and over, and loving it. Then it came to me - it's the seed of life. How beautiful - just beautiful.
