Bio
Flourish Studios, owned and operated by painter Christine Kuhn rose from the ashes of Cypress Fine Arts in 2003. Christine's most recent artwork is process-oriented. It begins with the assembly of items of interest--things which attract her from an aesthetic viewpoint or things which catch her fancy or make her smile. These items generally fall into a few categories: 1) dried plant materials, such as dried flower petals, bark from trees, leaves, etc. 2) tissue paper (she loves the transparency!) and other random scraps of paper like the tags from clothing, identification cards of strangers, old photos, doilies, etc. and 3) sand and dirt from sacred sites around the world. The sand and dirt not only add texture, but Christine hopes they will carry with them some of the healing properties found at the holy sites. After all the relevant materials have been collected, they are collaged onto a hardwood ground. Handmade walnut ink, gold leaf, oil and acrylic paints and inks are then applied to create an abstract work with a pleasing compositional and color balance.
The work is then set aside in a visible portion of Christine's studio. She looks at the work intently, day after day, until an image appears. Once the image has appeared in her mind's eye, its manifestation in paint and ink is usually a very rapid and intuitive process. Christine often doesn't understand the imagery until long after the work has been completed. At this time, the title and the meaning make themselves apparent to her conscious mind. The resulting imagery is oddly lovely, filled with unidentifiable animals and mythical characters with archetypal elements. The work is at times humorous and ironic; at other times, gentle and mysterious. Renaissance-style angels, quirky animals and biracial couples are current common themes. The themes change unexpectedly over time. Even Christine doesn't know the how or why of these changes. Christine's world is an oddly lovely place.
Once the imagery for a painting has been finalized, Christine often coats the paintings with a quarter to half inch layer of cast epoxy resin. This gives the final product a shiny glass-like surface under which many complex and natural-looking textures are embedded. Iridescent paints and inks glow from the interior, underneath the epoxy surface, giving the work a jewel-like quality. The work is encased and durable, sealed in space and time from the harshness of the exterior world. The natural-looking textures contrast beautifully with the obviously man-made surface.