Jacqueline Cristina

Lives and works in Brooklyn, NY, USA

Artist statement

My work is a devotional practice. It’s a visual and ritual exploration of the soul’s longing for "God" in a spiritually disoriented age. I create paintings and drawings that transmute modern despair into sacred inquiry, drawing from alchemy, Tibetan Buddhist philosophy, and Jungian dream symbolism to depict the shadow self, the higher self, and the divine archetypes that shape our inner worlds. After eight years of classical painting training and graduation from the New York Academy of Art, I came to understand that symbols are not literal, rather they are vessels of transformation. I needed to cure the modern ache of emptiness, the constant hunger for something more: more things, more experiences, more chemicals. Modern Life stopped working for me and I needed to leave my corporate job, the one thing that promised to solve all my problems. Leaving my “so called” secure corporate job only made the need for truth stronger. I started researching witchcraft and then it led me to alchemy, not as chemistry, but as a metaphor for enlightenment. This opened a path toward depicting emotional purification, spiritual awakening, and the search for ultimate truth. Through daily meditation and dreamwork, I began crafting pieces that feel more than just self-expression, going beyond transmissions, letting Spirit speak through me. Now, I travel through Europe, searching for and studying classical depictions of divinity while also asking strangers how they know their own souls. These...

Artwork