Christine
Patterson
"In our multidimensional world, it is an exciting time to be an artist. The digital age and all the technical avenues to choose from to communicate is a far cry from my darkroom days. I feel privileged to know of both worlds now and have tremendous respect for the past and for what lies ahead.
Art is an experience and an expression. To channel my expression using a camera and/or a paintbrush, is to release and raise my emotions. My life experiences, with inner conflicts, fears, hopes and aspirations direct my eyes and attention.
It is here the creativity begins and the appreciation of being able to communicate to myself and to others. It becomes my diary of visual interpretations of everyday life and experiences using the photograph or canvas itself and incorporating mixed media forms."
Follow Christine:
Artist Q+A:
Q: What 3 words would you use to describe your work?
A: story telling
nostalgic
layered
Q: What is your motivation behind your work?
A: I feel my work has a story telling element.
Each day for me is filled with noticing life and all the interactions that go with it on many levels.
My creating artistically is my connection to these interactions. It is a personal connection with the mediums I am using that then when finished, I hope, translates to the viewer.
My wish as a story teller is to draw the viewer in to have their own interpretation and to begin a personal visual journey.
For me personally, it is my visual diary.
Q: Can you tell me about your creative process?
A: I am a storyteller and enjoy tapping into an internal conversation with myself. My process varies from style to style to tell each story.
My fine art photography is a process where I enjoy altering the original photograph and then placing onto board and covering with hot wax to seal the image.
My mixed media work can vary from using inks and mark making tools to piecing together collages to using acrylic paints in various ways and combining gel mediums for texture and depth.
Q: Where do you derive inspiration from?
A: I love reading and finding old relics from letters, poems, to books to whatever the adventure will uncover for me.
It can be much like a scavenger hunt for items that might start telling a story and provide a platform to jump off of and begin exploring. Once this is set in motion, I begin digging for the best way to tell the story.
I enjoy asking myself questions and this then leads to the medium I choose and how best to depict what I am trying to uncover. It is a lot like being an archeologist in that I keep uncovering things about myself as I continue to explore.
Q: How did you come to be an artist?
A: I knew from a young age art was my friend and my art comforted me. My life was such that I did not find art until after college when art found me and saved my life in so many ways. I knew I was a story teller from a very young age but didn't know how to have people listen until the day I picked up a camera and this started my journey to having conversations with viewers without words. I will never forget the first time a work of art spoke to me and my whole being became in a meditative state of awe. I knew that for art to make my whole being resonate there must be a way to find out how to capture a viewer and help them transcend into their own stories.
Q: Is there a medium or style of art you’d like to try but haven’t?
A: My answer is yes always! I am exploring constantly and if there were more hours in the day I could be jumping into so many other mediums. The most important thing for me is to try to master one at a time so I feel confident in each language. I remember reading about Georgia O'Keeffe when she began losing her eyesight in her 90's, turned to pottery to continue to make art. She could feel with her hands the clay art pieces she was creating and I have never shaken that beautiful feeling that it is the art itself that is the saving grace not necessarily the medium.
Q: Is there a piece or series you’re most proud of?
A: Each piece I work on is its own story but I also work in themes.
The most important theme I worked on for many years was about tree's. These magnificent gentle giants taught me so much through photographing them in each season. I would resonate with a tree for many reasons and then proceed to tell the story through manipulation of the image. Trees are like people in so many ways and each story I told about a tree became a visual diary of my life and the lives of others around me.
My new series, as of 2020, involve painting layers upon layers of paint and mark making with a final resonating image on top of it. The image may be a figure or a face or something I saw in the layers that I begin to bring out. The faces and the figures have been a strong desire to continue this exploration.
Q: What about one you learned the most from?
A: Each season of my life has presented new work that I learn from and build upon. I would say that when I was a 30 year old to now an almost 60 year old, my art has become my way of noticing what I am noticing. It is important to understand this trust of your inner intuition, not only in art but also in life. It is a balancing act of your analytical mind balancing with your inner intuitive mind.
I enjoy looking back these thirty years and realize how much my art and the artist I have studied have taught me over the years of tapping into the truer sense of who I am.
Q: Do you listen to anything while you create?
A: I love listening to music when I create and really all kinds! I enjoy jazz to folk.....sometimes even a day of flute music. But, the music disappears the further I get into a piece and it’s truly just background.
Q: Is there a certain person or place that’s had a significant impact on the style and subject matter of your work?
A: I’ve gone through many seasons of who and what influences me and they range from artist to poets to authors. For this season in my life, I’ve been reading again a classic “The Artist Way” by Julia Cameron. The beauty about a book like this is each season of your life as an artist, I realize, I read into it differently.
As for an author, philosopher, poet and so much more is John O’Donohue. His words and vision inspires stories inside of me to be told.
Q: Any advice you’d give your younger self?
A: Don’t ever stop yourself from going on a “dream adventure” - let yourself know it’s okay to take risks and to own your creativity.
To not answer your call to creativity means you will miss so much out of life and what it has to offer. The universe is always calling us to create.....so claim this time.
CV
BORN
April 24, 1961, Knoxville, Tennessee
FORMAL EDUCATION
1984-B.A. Eckerd College, St. Petersburg, Florida
CURRENT GALLERY REPRESENTATION
Pryor Fine Art Gallery, Atlanta, Georgia
G&G Interiors, Knoxville, Tennessee
Charleston Art Brokers, Mount Pleasant, South Carolina
PAST GALLERY REPRESENTATION
The Arts Company, Nashville, Tennessee
Bennett Galleries, Knoxville, Tennessee
Mason Murer Gallery, Atlanta, Georgia
The Lowe Gallery, Atlanta, Georgia
The Lowe Gallery, Santa Monica, California
River Gallery, Chattanooga, Tennessee
Albers Fine Art Gallery, Memphis, Tennessee
Bennett Galleries, Nashville, Tennessee
Schneider Gallery, Chicago, ILL
Joel Soroka Gallery, Aspen, CO
Moorehead Gallery, New Orleans, LA
Liz Beth Gallery, Knoxville, TN
EXHIBITIONS
SOLO
2017 Nothing Is Ordinary, Bennett Galleries, Knoxville, Tennessee
2015 Boundaries: Spoken & Unspoken, The Arts Company, Nashville, Tennessee
2012 Equus… The Art of the Horse, The Gallery at G&G Interiors, Knoxville, Tennessee
2012 Equus… The Art of the Horse, The Arts Company, Nashville, Tennessee
2010 Simple Way of Love Jewelry Premier produced by JTV, G&G Interiors, Knoxville, Tennessee
2008 Artist of The Month, The Gallery at G&G Interiors, Knoxville, Tennessee
2006 European Moments, Bennett Galleries, Knoxville, Tennessee
2003 Traces In Time, Bennett Galleries, Knoxville, Tennessee
2003 Ordinary Moments, Bennett Galleries, Nashville, Tennessee
2002 Randomness of Light, Bennett Galleries, Knoxville, Tennessee
2001 Christine Patterson: Photography, Albers Fine Art Gallery, Memphis, Tennessee
2001 Atlantic Crossing Exhibit II, Bennett Galleries, Nashville, Tennessee
2000 Atlantic Crossing, Bennett Galleries, Knoxville, Tennessee
1999 Monuments & Moments, Bennett Galleries, Knoxville, Tennessee
1999 Pathways of Light, Albers Fine Art Gallery, Memphis, Tennessee
1997 Footsteps in France, Albers Fine Art Gallery, Memphis, Tennessee
1997 Floralscapes, Albers Fine Art Gallery, Memphis, Tennessee
1996 Echoes & Images,Traveling Exhibition, Book Tour
Tennessee State Museum, Nashville, Tennessee
First Tennessee Bank, Memphis Tennessee
Knoxville Museum of Art, Knoxville, Tennessee
Hunter Museum, Chattanooga, Tennessee
University of Tennessee Chattanooga, Chattanooga, Tennessee
Carson Newman College, Jefferson City, Tennessee
1996 Painted Passages, Albers Fine Art Gallery, Memphis, Tennessee
1995 Destinations, Bennett Galleries, Knoxville, Tennessee
1993 200 Miles/200 Years, Bennett Galleries, Knoxville, Tennessee
1993 Unfettered, Fine Art Gallery, Maryville College, Maryville, Tennessee
GROUP
2019 Nostalgia, Grand Bohemian Gallery, Charleston, South Carolina
2019 SEWE at Grand Bohemian Gallery, Charleston, South Carolina
2019 Lure of the Object, June & Rob Heller Collection, KMA, Knoxville, Tennessee
2018 October Open House, Pryor Fine Art, Atlanta, Georgia
2017 Pilgrimage Music Festival, Nashville, Tennessee
2015 Artscapes, Knoxville Museum of Art, Knoxville, Tennessee
2014 ArtXtravaganza, Webb High School of Knoxville, Knoxville, Tennessee
2014 Sixth Annual Woman’s History Month Exhibition, Customs House Museum & Cultural Center, Clarksville, TN
2013 Two Person Show with Andy Saftel, Bennett Galleries, Knoxville, TN
2013 Artscapes, Knoxville Museum of Art, Knoxville, Tennessee
2013 August Group Show, Mason Murer, Atlanta, Georgia
2013 The Association for Visual Arts, Chattanooga, Tennessee
2012 Members Show, The Arts & Cultural Alliance, Knoxville, Tennessee
2012 Arts in the Airport Exhibition, The Arts & Cultural Alliance, Knoxville, Tennessee
2011 Romance of Art & Design, The Gallery at G&G Fine Art Gallery, Knoxville, Tennessee
2011 High Arts Day, High Arts Museum, Atlanta, Georgia
2010 High Arts Day, High Arts Museum, Atlanta, Georgia
2010 Romance of the Horse, Tennessee State Museum, Nashville, Tennessee
1999-2012 Artscapes, Knoxville Museum of Art, Knoxville, Tennessee
2009 Atlanta Wine Auction, High Arts Museum, Atlanta, Georgia
2007 High Arts Day, High Arts Museum, Atlanta, Georgia
2005 Group Show, The River Gallery, Chattanooga, Tennessee
2005 The 16th Anniversary Show, The Lowe Gallery, Atlanta, Georgia
2004 Hand Made Pictures, Asheville Art Museum, Asheville, North Carolina
2004 Group Exhibit, The Lowe Gallery, Santa Monica, California
2004 The 15th Anniversary Show, The Lowe Gallery, Atlanta, Georgia
2001 Group Exhibit, Schneider Gallery, Chicago, Illinois
2000 The Memphis Cancer Center Foundation, Albers Fine Art Gallery, Memphis, Tennessee
2000 The Spectrum Auction, Hunter Museum, Chattanooga, Tennessee
1999 The Spectrum Auction, Hunter Museum, Chattanooga, Tennessee
1999 Signature Exhibition, Albers Fine Art Gallery, Memphis, Tennessee
1999 Juxtaposition, Albers Fine Art Gallery, Memphis, Tennessee
1998 Fin De Sie’Cie: A Photographic Survey, Artel Gallery, Pensacola, Florida
1998 The Spectrum Auction, Hunter Museum, Chattanooga, Tennessee
1998 2nd Annual Infocus Juried Exhibition, Palm Beach Work Centre, Palm Beach, Florida
1997 Stories of the Eye, Fine Arts Gallery, Maryville College, Maryville, Tennessee
1997 36th Annual Tennessee All-State Art Exhibit, Watkins Institute, Nashville, Tennessee
1997 The Spectrum Auction, Hunter Museum, Chattanooga, Tennessee
1997 Inaugural Biennial Invitational Exhibit, Memphis College of Arts, Memphis, Tennessee
1996 The Spectrum Auction, Hunter Museum, Chattanooga, Tennessee
MUSEUM & PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
June & Rob Heller
The First Bank, Jim & Janet Ayres Collection, Nashville, Tennessee
Blackberry Farm Hotel & Resort
Tennessee Governor’s Mansion, Nashville, Tennessee
Tennessee State Capitol, Nashville, Tennessee
Knoxville Convention Center
Knoxville Museum of Art
Tennessee State Museum of Art, Nashville, Tennessee
Hunter Museum, Chattanooga, Tennessee
Independent Bank, Memphis, Tennessee
SunTrust Bank, Knoxville, Tennessee
Club LeConte, Knoxville, Tennessee
Morgan Keegan, Memphis, Tennessee
Burkhart and Company, Knoxville, Tennessee
Nation’s Bank, Memphis, Tennessee
Promus Hotel Corporation, Memphis, Tennessee
Maryville College, Maryville, Tennessee
RBM Venture Group, Memphis, Tennessee
First Tennessee Bank, Maryville, Tennessee
PUBLICATIONS
2012 Garden & Gun
2012 The American Quarter Horse Journal
2010 The Simple Way of Love, by Marla DeLong & Christine Patterson (Self-Published)
2001 Letters Home, Poems by Jeff Daniel Marion (Cover Photo)
1998 Best of Photography Annual 1998, Serbin Communication
1997 Home Fires, Poems by Linda Parsons (Cover Photo)
1996 Haunting Memories, by Christine Patterson & Wilma Dykeman (U.T. Press)
1996 Cracker Barrell Foundation
1996 Southern Living
1995 Ghost of Covered Bridges, by Karen Zweifel (Cover Photo)
1992 WATE-TV6 Community Service Report Magazine
FEATURE
November `15 Style Blue Print (Southern Artist Spotlight)
February `07 EvaMag (Feature Article and Cover)
Summer `04 HGTV Featured Segment
November `03 Knoxville Style, “It’s A Matter of Time”
Summer ’99 Celebrating Knoxville, “Waterbodies”
Summer ’98 Celebrating Knoxville, “Window of Time”
Winter ’97 Photographer’s Forum Magazine
Winter ’95 Imagemaker, Luminos Print Maker’s Guild, Vol.2 Issue 1
October ’96 Shutterbug magazine (Feature Article and Cover)
GRANTS & HONORS
2012 Members Show, The Arts & Cultural Alliance, Knoxville, Tennessee. Cash Award
1998 2nd Annual INFOCUS Juried Exhibition, Palm Beach Photographic Center, Honorable Mention
1998 Photographer’s Forum 18th Annual photography Contest, Fourth Place Black & White
1997 Watkins Institute, Award of Photography
1997 Photo District News Magazine, 3rd Place Direct Mail Category
1996 Tennessee Bicentennial Photographer
GUEST LECTURES
2015 Fresh Art Friday, The Arts Company, Nashville, Tennessee
2012 Fresh Art Friday, The Arts Company, Nashville, Tennessee
2001 The Colonial Dames, Knoxville, Tennessee
1999 Knoxville Museum of Art, Art Guild, Knoxville, Tennessee
1996 8th Annual Southern Festival of Books, Nashville, Tennessee
1996 Art Education Lecture, Appalachian Center, Carson Newman College
1996 Knoxville Museum of Art, Sponsored by the Trust Co
INVOLVEMENT
2012 Site Photographer, Extreme Home Makeover, Knoxville, Tennessee