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The following feature was conducted and posted for your viewing pleasure by the MC7C crew. Please direct link to this feature rather than copy+pasting. Give us credit for our hard work!Now we give you Christine Harris. :BIO:Christine Harris is a native of Chesapeake, VA returning to the area after living in New Jersey for the past 6 years. She has a Master of Science degree from Eastern Virginia Medical School in Art Therapy and Bachelors of Arts in Fine Art and Psychology from Virginia Wesleyan College. She has exhibited her artwork in several galleries in New Jersey. Her most recent accomplishment has been a commission at the Simon Breast Cancer Center at Morristown Memorial Hospital in New Jersey. :INTERVIEW:How long have you been creating? What got you started doing art?I have been creating art for as long as I remember. Mud, crayons, paint, sticks, rocks –I was indiscriminate. Although this may sound slightly morbid, my interest in art was sparked by the angels in the cemetery located beside the Norfolk Zoo. My family would go to the cemetery every Sunday afternoon to place flowers on my great grandfather's grave. I spent many afternoons admiring those angels and remember thinking I would love to have one in my yard. I can still see the influence of those angels in my work now.Describe your work to someone who has never seen it before.Detailed sculptures of figures and faces representing states of the human soul. I generally, work small and often display my artwork in shadow boxes. The shadow boxes are intended to give the feeling of a specimen frozen in time—essentially stuck in a place not unlike purgatory. The figures are often depicted with closed eyes—they are in their own world not paying attention to the larger environment that they are a part of. The figures are the soul that have wings and have the power to chose flight but for some reason are choosing not to fly. I often use bottles that contain things like shells, sand, etc and these are symbolic of the human condition to me—we are shells for a spirit, we are like the grains of sand (all different and unique but hard to distinguish from one another from a distance). I often include vines that grow on the figures and these represent our connection to nature. The vines are taking over and the figures seem unaware of them—our denial of our connectedness to nature.Most recently, my work has been faces. I continue to use vine imagery but have started to include water imagery. Being in a coastal area again, it is hard to ignore the influence of the tides. I am working ceramic clay—a new experience for me. Ceramic clay has a mind of its own at times, and I find myself having to ride the wave with it. What do you find visually stimulating right now? Any local artists that we need to keep an eye on?Dzaet's work is unique, raw and simultaneously beautiful. Ben Harris, my husband, has created a series mixed media found object sculptures that I think are funny, tragic commentaries about American culture. Although I cannot recall specific names of the artists, I thought that the Day of the Dead show at the Charles H. Taylor Center was the one of the best shows that I have ever seen in Hampton Roads.What other artists or movements inform your work/aesthetics/sensibilities?I am fascinated by the current trend in "Low Brow" art such as that seen in Juxtapose and High Fructose magazines. However, in general, I cannot say that I have a certain artist or art movement that is highly influential to my artwork. My artwork is a visual documentation of how my mind synthesizes life experience (my observations about of the world around me, the people I come in contact with, the things I am reading about, and the lateral connections I make between those things).If there were no financial limits whatsoever for you, what constraints would you most like to overstep? Are there other mediums you would explore?
I would love to be able to weld or sculpt marble. I would also be happy with an unlimited supply of Apoxie Sculpt. Did you grow up in Virginia? (If not, when / why did you move here?)I grew up in Chesapeake.Do you do gallery shows?YesWhat's your favorite piece (at the moment)? Why?"Ocean View", the face pictured as my default, is my current favorite in the manner that it expresses the content and the way that I rendered the face.The business side of being an artist: how do you market/promote yourself, and does it work? How do you cope?
I teach and try to be involved with the community. I am also an art therapist, and will be doing a "Medicine Man/ Woman" workshop and community totem pole project in conjunction with the Portlock Gallery in Chesapeake. I have a website—www.art-insight.com and participate in art shows. Since I have been back in Virginia I have done a promotional show at Jerry's Artarama and an Alumni Show at Virginia Wesleyan College. I also have a Myspace (www.myspace.com/artinsight) site to make connections with different artists and galleries.I cope by making art. I also have a supportive husband and that helps a lot. Let's have some fun with word association. Give me your immediate feelings on the following(if you've got no discernable feelings, make something up that won't embarrass you in the morning)Pembroke Area aka Downtown Virginia Beach- Big glass and concrete buildings.The Oceanfront- Tourists.Granby Street- The now closed Jaffe Arts Center—what a bummer.Portfolio Weekly- Free.Independent Music Stores / Businesses / Restaurants- These people are brave! My favorite independent restaurants are San Antonio Sams and The Jewish Mother.Best Venue for art shows- The Gallery at Selden ArcadeBest Kept Secret- Chippokes Plantation State Park in Surry CountyPungo- Disappearing.Favorite Dive Bar- My living room.  What's the most played song on your iPod (or an equivalent music playing device) in the past week?"Super Bon Bon" Soul Coughing (Propeller Head Mix)What came first, the art or the misery? Explain.They are so intertwined that I would have trouble distinguishing the two. I cannot remember a time without both.:LINKS:official myspace pageofficial website (non-myspace)
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