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Christine Holton
Christine J Holton was born and grew up in Durham, NC. She has enjoyed traveling all over the continental US, however has kept her home in North Carolina, enjoying having her family close and feeling rooted in the place where she experienced early life to adulthood. She received her BA in Art Education in 2008 from North Carolina Central University with concentration in Painting and Drawing. She has an interest and foundation in Geology and Anthropology, which influences some of her work.
View Body of WorkMore About Christine
She has been a teaching artist for 10 years and has a studio in Durham, NC. Christine stays active teaching private lessons, group classes, art consulting and offsite art experiences such as parties and homeschool groups.
As a Durham native, she feels rooted and connected to her hometown and is always exploring new spots and spaces to be found in the town she knows well. She creates work that emphasizes natural subjects with bright color and texture, creating tributes and portraits of recognizable, common subjects. Her influences are the anatomy of the human body, animals, the stratigraphy of the earth, and plants, trees and flowers. She explores themes of interconnectedness between the human body and the earth, sometimes combining imagery of bones and organs with botanical subjects and places in nature.
Artist Statement:
“My paintings and drawings explore the symbology, purpose, and functions of living things. They are portraits meant to celebrate and venerate living systems for their beauty, unique traits, characteristics, ancient designs, and meaning. I am interested in branch-like forms, patterns, and symmetry found in the human anatomy, symbols of nature such as the tree, and animals. I’m fascinated by and in awe of these living systems, their functions and their energies, my own human organs included.
I celebrate my subjects using bright colors to bring attention to them and to add fantasy. Lively, painterly brushstrokes exaggerate their movement and vitality, while up-close views, intentional compositions, and abstracted or fantasy-like environments help viewers to find enchantment and draw their attention to the beauty of the living object itself.”