Collages of Cristina Parise

The Gist of Christina's Collage

I won't bore or ramble telling my story. I hate that. The short version of my story is that I've been an artist since I was little. I obtained my first award recognizing my creativity when I was five years old. And have been doing "art" ever since. I used to think that I was so attracted to art because I was so bad at math. And yet, the two go hand and hand. There wouldn't be one without the other. It has taken a lifetime (or 40 years) to realize that my art is my contribution; the reason why I am on the planet.

.I feel I have been misunderstood for a majority of my life...which has only driven the need to create in my private world. I have collected thoughts, and garbage (both in the literal and emotional sense). Made every wrong choice, only to learn and grow, become wiser. That what doesn't kill us, only makes us stronger, right? Yet, artistically I have struggled to find my niche. It seems to have one day come to me magically;
to incorporate all of who I am, what I think, things I have, into some artform. The thoughts, the garbage, the emotion, the pain, and the reverence of historical "stuff" together. Now when people ask me, "what kind of art do you do?". I better know how to identify myself. Now I say, "I'm a collage artist, instead of saying, "I paste garbage on canvas."

Deep down inside, I know I'm a compositionalist. Is that a word? I have a thing for the composition of things...art, the living room furniture, my underwear drawer. Space, tension, conflict. I have always been attracted to peeling paint, old billboards, erosion, decay, things leaving one dimension and assuming another. The layers of peeling paint on my window sills tell a story. They speak of the time and people that came before. I think that's cool. I can feel the history. And I try and illustrate those feelings and premonitions in my art. Almost like a dejavu...like I'd been here before.

I revel in the fact that before we had all of this technology and computer aided devices to help us think, do and be, people actually had to do it for themselves. Innovators. Philosophers. Inventors. Scientists. Mathematicians. Artists. There wasn't a library of a bazillion reference sources to tap into in regard to certain schools of thought, ideas or subject matters. Those original thinkers blow my mind. Their contributions are still solid and highly regarded today. Hence my passion for those earlier days, especially the Middle Ages. A much simpler; complicated time and way of life. Survival of the fittest.

Along with the above mentioned menusia, I have a straight up passion for type and the letterform and paper products. (I have issues with time management, book stores, and art supply vendors.) And that's where it starts on the canvas...what comes out as a finished piece is never the same as the initial thought. It somehow evolves; a process, growing; taking on one vision, then a different vision. Like all things do. Constantly changing and becoming something else. How scientific. How artistic.
Christina Parise