November 3rd, 2016 § § permalink
I have been preparing for my third show at Navillus Gallery!
press-release
Opening Reception:
November 17th
6-8pm
110 Davenport Road
One of the two series I will be exhibiting is The Replicators. While hiking through Tortugera National Park, I was impressed with the variety of plant species and their many survival solutions, particularly the epiphytes. These plants survive many feet off the air, growing on top of branches of large trees.
Since the series began four years ago, I have been inspired by other gardens exhibiting wild growth and patterns. Coral, crystals, flowers and ferns are some of the forms that I abstract and synthesize in this new chapter. These pieces are a meditation on how replicators bloom, mutate, wither and spread. I am especially touched by their perseverance and potential.
RAINFOREST:
detail images
OCEAN:
detail images
CAVE:
detail images
FOREST:
detail images
-Christie
November 6th, 2015 § § permalink
…and the water around us! Last March I went to Phuket for a dive in Koh Phi Phi. It was the first time I saw such lush and gigantic coral. Scuba diving is the closest I will ever get to knowing what it is like in space- the immensity of black water, the altered laws of movement and the disquieting notion that the body is dependent on a few devices that seem advanced and crude at the same time.
The colours, textures and shimmer of the coral and animals were so striking I wanted to use them as inspiration for a Replicators piece.
Just before we ascended we got caught in the middle of a bait ball. It was pretty trippy. The fish were silver as they approached vanishing point but up close they had red stripes and googly eyes.
-Christie
October 11th, 2012 § Comments Off on Blue Blood IV § permalink
From the “King of Speed” series.
As with all drawings in this series, I used a nib to draw the original cheetah. For IV, I burned the image of the cheetah onto a silkscreen and printed him until the ink started to clog the stencil. I especially like the last image, where the stencil clogged the area around his waist. His long, lean body looks exaggerated and sickly. Please click HERE to read my description of this series.
I recently became interested in King Charles II, the last of the Hapsburg Spanish line. The House of Hapsburg began in the 10th century, gradually gaining influence and territory via strategic marriages. The pinnacle of their empire came in the 1500s, with King Charles V, whose empire spanned across Europe, the Far East and the Americas. It was around this time that the Hapsburg family, the royal descendants of Spain, Austria and Bavaria, stopped outbreeding. Consequentially, King Charles II was the ultimate product of severe inbreeding. He suffered from many physical and mental disabilities, and was unfit to rule and produce offspring. He died in 1700 and the Hapsburg strategy of marriage to increase their power, in the end, became the reason for their extinction.
The silkscreen is the first printing method in which colour was an option, so I decided to mix a deep blue and silver, making a reference to the English idiom “blue blood” for royal lineage. I liked the idea of printing with imaginary blue blood because even though it is beautiful and iridescent, it succumbs to the physicality of the printing method, just like anything else.
The show opening at Navillus Gallery is tomorrow and this royal guy will be there! I am very excited and I’ll see you soon!
-Christie
![]()
April 5th, 2012 § § permalink
A sketch of a rhinoceros!
-Christie
February 29th, 2012 § § permalink
To be made and designed purely for another type of existence and to one day have it fall from the sky without really knowing what it means.
-Christie
February 27th, 2012 § § permalink
Tralalala
Beautiful day to float around red coral! I think it’s pretty neat that red is the first colour to disappear under water, but red coral is only found at deep depths. Red coral has been used as decoration for centuries, which makes me think of them as invisible sunken treasure. One of the things I find fascinating about marine life is its many illusions, especially disappearing (like vanishing squids in a cloud of black ink and the blue ringed octopus that suddenly appears to poison its victim).
Unfortunately, my documentation didn’t capture the silver highlights I did for the argonaut and jellyfish, but I guess that’s another optical illusion!
These two took forever to get done the way I wanted. Lots of experimenting and ruining things at home, but I love them!
-Christie
February 22nd, 2012 § § permalink
Just finished printing this guy last night!
At last, he finally looks like a blue ringed octopus in a crazy ocean.
-Christie
January 25th, 2012 § § permalink
They swagger with confidence and grace!
Octopuses have neurons not only in their brain, but in their tentacles as well.They have been observed using tools, playing, escaping from tanks and are so intelligent that they are not allowed to be experimented on without the use of anesthetics. BBC’s Life has a segment on the female giant octopus who has just mated for the first time and looks for a good hideout for her offspring. She lays her eggs and carefully monitors them by caressing them with her tentacles. She does this until they are ready to hatch, and she dies of starvation. I am quite touched because the mama was really conscious of what she was focusing on. She probably knew she was dying. It would be operatic if she didn’t realise she was expiring.
The blue ringed octopus is the group with venom powerful enough to kill humans. It changes from a light brown to a brilliant yellow and blue polka dot when it is secreting its venom (you can fast forward to around 1:25 to see the show!) CLICK HERE TO SEEEEEE
January 17th, 2012 § § permalink
Maybe my favourite.
-Christie
December 15th, 2011 § § permalink
An indian star and an argonaut sail for your undersea travel.
The female argonaut is the only octopus that makes a shell. I first saw her paper- thin shell displayed in Deyrolle and thought it resembled the shape of a wing. For years naturalists wondered why this modest octopus keeps a shell while everyone else is naked. I absolutely love the drawings that arise from Aristotle’s hypothesis- that the argonaut’s shell was her boat, her tentacles were to help with the rowing and her large dorsal tentacles were her sail that she used to travel across the surface. Well, while she is indeed usually found near the surface of the sea, it’s been published that she controls her buoyancy by trapping air bubbles in her shell.
And isn’t the shell of the indian star tortoise beautiful? I saw it at Toronto Zoo this summer and thought it was quite perfect! Anyway, I’ve been working on this side project/series which I plan to start screen printing. I like looking at illustrations of hot air balloons, and of course, I know going up and down isn’t so hard for sea creatures like it is for us on land, but I kind of like that absurdity. It’s so completely luxurious and recreational and if Neptune is god of the sea then he should have all kinds of toys embellished with the most beautiful underwater things. I also like imagining passing a pod of dolphins going over and under you while you’re in a hot water balloon!
-Christie
