Artist Statement
My paintings come from a strong Eastern European
influence. I grew up in Romania, where music and art were solid
foundations of my cultural upbringing. As a child, I was gifted
in music, so my parents enrolled me in the music conservatory.
Thus, at the age of 7, my career was chosen for me. Studying music
in a Communist country was a very rigid and controlling experience.
For most of my life, this was the path I took: performing concerts
and teaching music. However, as I grew older, I came to realize
that being a real artist is really about freedom of creativity.
The preconditioned approach to learning music had not allowed
me that gift.
 At
a time when I had been very driven in my piano practice, I felt
a deep impulse to do something else. I noticed my tulip garden
and suddenly had the urge to paint it. I had never painted before
but I was drawn to the colors and forms, and I simply had to try.
As I continued experimenting with color and form, my desire to
paint became so strong that I ultimately cut back my teaching
and performing career to follow my heart. With painting, I have
chosen my own path of freedom..
My authentic inner-experience is spontaneously channeled onto
the canvas where space, color and
feelings have no boundaries. As a musician and painter I express
with color what I hear in my
heart. I work with various technics and patterns to create a feeling
that allows color to define
form.
My concern is not the precision of the subject I see; It is painting
the feeling of what I see. The essence of each painting is the
connection between the subject matter and me. When I step inside
the space I am creating on canvas, I want the viewer to go there
with me - to experience the openness of the moment. Expressing
the truth of the present moment is what drives me to paint.
As I paint, the colors, shapes and forms evolving on the canvas
allow me to reach back towards my experiences as a child traveling
from behind the Iron Curtain, to New York, and then eventually
on to California. Digging deep into a vast pool of feelings, I
reach out and express on canvas the paradox between reality and
dream, embracing the ethereal and the mystery of the unknown.
To this expression, I continuously dedicate my time as an artist.
Painting offers a passion to heal the inner soul and connect stronger
with my true Self.
Cristina |
