Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Christine Holton. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Alright, Christine thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?

Since the year 2021, I have been interested in painting human anatomy and learning about the physical functions and aesthetic forms within our bodies. I began really studying our inner workings and selected individual parts to emphasize in portrait-style paintings using bright and contrasting colors, naming the series Corpus Chromatic, which means literally “the main body” and “relating to color”. The Corpus Chromatic is a body of work that reveals the functioning of our human anatomy and biology and contemplates the experiences that our bodies carry. Life stories, family disease and ancestral memories are stored unseen within the physical self, according to epigenetic studies.
This series began as a personal account of experiences with health, medical treatment and pathology. Unlike exercise, which benefits physiology, or meditation, which clears the mind, creating art accesses both mind and body to promote mental, emotional and physical healing. I celebrate subjects using color and scale, adding surrealistic landscapes and actual visited places where transformative connections with the earth were made.
These works invite us to imagine what it means to both inhabit a body and to embody, or to be an expression of or give a tangible or visible form to an idea, quality or feeling.

I document a world within us that most of us don’t see until we need medical treatment, yet is endlessly fascinating when one has a personal motive to investigate it. I received a diagnosis of Hashimoto’s hypothyroidism in 2021, and after experiencing symptoms which were inconclusive for years, learned how my own immune system was attacking my thyroid, creating a variety of uncomfortable symptoms including weak joints and strong mood shifts. I learned that to create healing I could make changes within my lifestyle that put the disease into remission, addressing the problems from a preventative standpoint. I became really interested in how the human body looked inside, and the American healthcare system is designed so that a person can’t easily obtain medical insurance or financial aid coverage for treatment until their diagnosis gets to a critical point on the outside, when symptoms are much more severe. This obstructs early health education and potential measures of preventative care.

Our bodies are innately beautiful, and showcasing these organs, bones and microcosms in the body is an homage to the human vessel carrying lived experiences and those of our ancestors within the tissues. I paint to celebrate wholeness and freedom within ourselves. The writing accompanying each piece explains the typical anatomical functions of the subject, with implicit deeper meanings and brief personal accounts.

Christine, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Well, I first became interested in art around age 6-7, when we took a family trip to the Smithsonian in DC. There, I first saw the works of Georgia O’Keefe, which particularly blew my mind because they were depictions of real places but they seemed like fantasies. From then on, I drew flowers and zoomed-in imagery inspired, I think, by some of O’Keefe’s paintings. I loved to collage landscape scenes from magazine images, using nature pictures to create cityscapes and vice-versa. Basically I liked contrasts and dualities, though I didn’t have those words in my everyday language.

I create custom pet portraits and commissioned works of various subjects, and I find that I love making people happy. There has to be a balance between making from my inner inspiration and curiosity and creating work requested by others in order to be paid, as much as I love to be a part of that process. I have a growing body (hehe) of work which focuses on the anatomy of the human body, from bones to histology. I am nowhere near finished with this group of paintings.
I do a lot of creativity coaching, which is really mentoring people through challenging creative projects like paintings, portfolio planning, and developing a body of cohesive work, for any reason. It’s some of my favorite work. I think I fill a need for needing encouragement and getting practical applications for getting out of a slump, getting past a block, and even making art for the first time, which is intimidating especially for adults. I also fill a need, I think, for wellness professionals to have art in their personal spaces. Many paintings of mine end up in the offices of medical professionals. It feels like such an honor when a doctor tells me they referred to a spine painting in their office ,which I created, to talk about vertebra to a patient.

My creative process today is both personal and in-progress and growing and shifting. Some new paintings are taking on specific landscapes and geography for their backgrounds. I am fascinated with how our bodies connect and share energy with the earth. The term “embodiment” feels like a wholeness and freedom within myself, and I feel that strongly when I am out in nature, away from the urban landscape. There exists a connectedness in the city, too, but I am most connected to myself in the silence of the woods. As I continue to heal, I find I have more resources to share with other people in a variety of ways. I love teaching one-on-one, special workshops and just getting lost in a new idea painting.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

For years I was painting on the side, basically weekends, and working full time in restaurants. I didn’t believe that I could become a full-time artist and survive financially. Then, I got connected to a place in Durham called Happymess Art Supplies, Studios and Classes, now called Artpost. There, I got a variety of opportunities to teach different local populations and individuals; this included classes, parties, lessons and visiting schools, and it was the best time to try out teaching styles and project planning. I gained a lot of experience which shaped how and where I focused next. This whole set of experiences built into a full time week, and I began to get some exhibition opportunities as well. I quit my last service industry job in 2018. It was more of a gradual turn than a pivot, to be honest, but it was a bit scary to take that leap regardless. It’s still pretty insecure sometimes.

We’d love to hear your thoughts on NFTs. (Note: this is for education/entertainment purposes only, readers should not construe this as advice)

At this point in my career, I am much more interested in creating analog artwork. I often wonder if the value of physical work is decreasing due to the ever growing world of digital currency and artmaking. For me, it’s not my thing. I don’t purchase NFTs nor create them. I don’t have any plans to at this point, but I am watching how they evolve into our creative culture and am keeping a bit of an open mind.