I've always found my creativity a means to escape, a way to manifest emotions and sensations explicable only in physical terms. Via form, line, shape, color and sensation, I've developed a variety of vocabularies that are part of intensely focused and wildly dissimilar inquiries.
In 1989, I began to execute temporal, nature-based constructions that celebrate the dichotomy between the tenacious and tenuous. Physical explorations of self and survival, these linked, linear and rib-like planar structures incorporate elements of internal structure, structural interdependence, and protective external membrane and speak to the essence of systems. Termed "Intuitive Architecture", I executed them on an intimate scale, much like the skeleton or exoskeleton of a small creature, and on human scale, like a collapsible structure large enough for two, a group totem or large creature.
The themes of "Intuitive Architecture" are shelter, mobility, independence, interdependence and personal sustainability ( ie. individual and holistic survival). Descriptive of a physical reality that is both personal and site specific, "Intuitive Architecture" has a relationship to Transcendental ideology coined and embraced by Thoreau and Emerson, that is, seeking Oneness with God and the Universal Om in nature.........
In my early 20's I carved elegaic, intimate, self portraits in wood. During this period, I was engaged in an extremely painful custody battle with my daughter's father and step mother. A mother at age 18, I had chosen a path of considerable personal sacrifice to bear and raise my daughter. To lose her at age six, even part-time, was almost unendurable for me.
The figurative self-portraits are the physical manifestations of my efforts to keep myself intact, when it seemed that which I most treasured in my life, the maternal bond of continuity, was damaged irrevocably.
In my 30's, my art began to look quite different as I found myself working through intimate relationships, gender identity, and social roles in mixed media. These small graphic/sculptural figurative works are reductive and metaphoric, with implied social, family or political contexts and dramas.
"Cosmoscope" is a means to exploring color, line and shape playfully, as pure energy and arrangement, and comes from my work with elementary students. When I began to cut and reconfigure these discarded paintings, the Ephemera-Detritus series evolved; these mixed media low relief assemblages incorporate found images, patterns, objects, textures and shapes.
There is a series of three shaped panels, "Sweet Tooth", "Red Hot Long Lost Lone Star" and "Boy Blue," incomplete, which lead to "Requiem"........
I'm also working on a young adult dystopian eco fantasy novel, Aria of Sylvania.
Curriculum Vitae of Christine M. Griffin
Public Art Commissions/Residencies/ Community Collaborations
2017: “Toiyabe Totems” Truckee Maker Show, Truckee, CA, June.
2017: “Ephemeral Construct", community collaborative installation, Reno
SculptureFest, Reno, NV, May.
SculptureFest, Reno, NV, May.
2012: “Almost Beachfront Digital Studio Lab” Project Award, Stonybrook
University,
Southampton, NY. July.
2010:
“Jumbo Grade” commissioned environmental sculpture installed on
private lands.
Carson City, NV. Steel and wood.
2009:
“Bird Song, Bird Dance”, Artist in Residence Sculpture
Commission,
Pocono Elementary Center, Tannersville, PA, funded by PA
Department of Economic &
Community Development grant. An
installation of seven kinetic sculptural elements of
varying scale
evolving from a four week arts residency with students grades K-5.
Powder
coated steel, wood, and copper.
2004:
“Hearts, Hands and Homes of Bangor”. Artist-in-Residence Public
Mural
Commission, funded by Pennsylvania Partners in the Arts Grant,
co-sponsored by Bangor
Main Street Program, Bangor, PA. A 48”
mandala incorporating symbolic motifs selected
by eighth grade
students from the heritage and values of their community. Stained
Glass.
2003:
“Shafer Koality Kids” Brainstormed themes with fourth grade
student design team,
illustrated by high school students. Fourth
graders chose favorite aspects of designs, which
were combined into
final illustration. Co-coordinated production of 24 x 4’
collaborative
mosaic mural with fourth grade and high school
students, and artist in residence Tomas
Wolff. Shafer Elementary
School, Nazareth PA, through PA Artist in Residence Grant and
private
donors.
1997:
“Delaware Water Gap” collaborated with eighth grade gifted
education class to create
a PA finalist banner submission exhibited
on Getty Museum of Los Angeles' website. JT
Lambert Intermediate
School, East Stroudsburg, PA.
Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art, Feminist Art Base, Brooklyn
Museum, Brooklyn NYC.
The Forge Gallery, Milford, PA "Cosmoscope" July 2013
The Shawnee Gallery, Shawnee On Delaware, PA. "On The Delaware" November 2010Dutot Museum, Delaware Water Gap, PA, "Sweet Tooth" July 2008
Pocono Cinema Gallery, Solo Exhibition, “Cosmoscope” April 2008
GoggleWorks, Reading PA. Cohen Gallery, Juried Exhibition, Feb-March 2007
Community Gallery, Trinity Episcopal Church, Mt. Pocono, PA, Solo Exhibition, May 2006
The Banana Factory, Bethlehem, PA "Self Portraits" Juried Exhibition. June 2001
Pocono Cinema Gallery, Solo Exhibition, “Pink”, October, 2000
Contemporary Gallery, Marywood University, Scranton PA. "Regional Art '98" Juried Exhibition July, 1998
Martin Gallery, Muhlenberg College, Allentown, PA. "Mayfair '96 Juried Exhibition".
Levy Gallery, Moore College of Art and Design, Philadelphia, PA. "Face to Face: Portraits by Moore Alumnae." March- April, 1994
Levy Gallery, Moore College of Art and Design, Philadelphia, PA "Sculpture by Recent Moore Alumnae" June 1992
Education
East Stroudsburg University of Pennsylvania, Graduate Work in Public Administration, 2015
Stonybrook University, Southampton Writer's Conference, Young Adult Fiction with National Library Award Winner Patricia McCormick, July 2012
Graduate work in English as a Second Language, IU 20, Northampton, PA, 2002
Graduate work in Graphic Design and Fine Arts, University of the Arts, Philadelphia PA, 1995
Moore College of Art & Design, Philadelphia, PA B.F.A cum laude
Sculpture/ Art Education 1990
Lehigh University, Architecture, 1985
University of Rochester, Psychology, 1984
