Christine Walker

Lives and works in Sonoma County, CA, USA

Artist statement

My work expresses the resilient, hopeful, and transient. These paintings, titled collectively "Comings & Goings in Joy & Light,” are maps of the heart. They are meditations on love and states of being, puzzles of impermanence, kinetic energy, memory, and spirit painted while on a journey through deep grief following the death of my son. In the first months back in the studio after the tragedy, I confronted a series in progress called "Terrains." For weeks, the only action that made sense was to paint translucent layers of white over those colorful canvases. Eventually, the veils of light beckoned a tender way forward into internal dialogue, and I began anew. Shapes gleaned from my watercolor sketchbooks became storied with the joys and intricacies of loving deeply. For the first few years, I could paint only the light. Eventually, I began painting the starry nights. I continue to evolve the series in tribute to my son and in celebration of the time, intentions, and connections we human beings share with one another in our comings and goings. Nature, music, and dance — the earth, water, skies, interplay of humans with their environments, and traces of human presence — have long influenced my work, which has evolved over the decades in thematic series influenced by my surroundings and investigations: "Pedestrians" crossing downtown streets near my San Francisco warehouse studio; "Swimmers" in pools and lakes where I trained for Bay Area triathlons; "Harbors" and...

Artwork