Artist's Statement

Christina Anne Barber
Artist Statement

Creating is the exploration of a question whose answer is art. While the product of my drawing is most important, my exploration, my questioning is as important. When I start a work there is an idea and intention of what I will make, but I allow myself the freedom to change direction when the path forks. Sometimes a fluke while painting can change the overall composition just enough that a new compositional idea becomes clear. It’s what I like to call a “eureka moment.” My process of working is intuitive and I use my imagination as a tool to mix ideas and images together in compositions. My choice of images is the result of found material, notes from observation and free association. The process of creating art and developing its underlying concept is what I find interesting in making art. I do not think there are bad or good artworks, just clearer answers to my initial questions. My current collection of paintings and drawings juxtapose colorful images of stylish and cosmopolitan women with wild beasts. These artworks present my sense of urban life in Alaska, my home, and of people disconnected from the context of a vast natural wilderness filled with beasts. The experience of my physical surrounding from Amsterdam to Alaska influenced my work and I want to point out the fantastic, the irony and absurdity in life. I use the human body, objects of nature and wild animals as metaphorical images to explore my central themes of gender and identity; and I am expanding my research into urban life within a wilder context.