Christine Cover
Christine Cover’s abstract expressionist paintings have precise balance.
From their color to the layout of each element on the canvas, each decision plays an essential role in making her artwork. We asked her a few questions about how she began and where she finds inspiration.
Briefly introduce yourself.
My name is Christine Cover and I am an abstract expressionist painter currently based in Washington DC. I was born in Columbia, Missouri where I remained until receiving my Bachelor of Fine Arts and Master of Art Education at the University of Missouri. My mother is an artist, which gave me the opportunity at a young age to learn about the habits of an artist by observing her process. She is a watercolorist who continues to teach me that art takes practice, patience, and perseverance. As an art major in college, I continued to search for my own artistic identity. While I learned so much from my professors about how to think about art, talk about art, and create art, I graduated feeling I had yet to find my voice as an artist. Unsure of how to proceed in my own work, I continued to practice my craft while going back to school for a master’s program in art education with an emphasis in learning, teaching, and curriculum. Here, I expanded my knowledge of art by studying art pedagogy, developing a passion for designing curricula that helps students grapple with their own complex identities, and how to infuse exploration and investigation into the artistic process. In the following five years, I moved to Kansas City where I invested myself in both education and art making, the two vocational spheres I hold most valuable.
Describe the type of paintings you do.
A little over a year ago, I moved from small watercolor paintings and detailed pen drawings to experimenting with large format acrylic paintings. For some time, I have considered myself a colorist, an artist drawn to and dependent on the expressive language of color, and this new form of painting synchronized with this artistic identity. Through this work I became increasingly interested in how certain spaces are perceived and inhabited. I use thinned acrylic on raw canvas, layering colors of varying opacity to abstract the experience of a space into lines and forms like those on a map. These paintings represent a dialectic between artist and environment: between the sensory/affective encounter with a three-dimensional field and the colors and shapes, curves and collisions that make up its two-dimensional form. In their composition and movement, these works represent the action of occupying a particular space, as well as the feeling such a space imparts.
What are you most inspired by?
Most recently, I find myself inspired by color action as defined by Bauhaus artist Josef Albers. Albers described “seeing color action” along with “feeling color relatedness” as first steps in using color effectively in one’s work. At this moment in my career, I’m feeling inspired to deconstruct and rebuild my understanding of color as both element and worldview.
“I’m inhabiting a growth mindset, embracing the love of learning, and allowing myself the opportunities to try and fail.”
What is your mantra?
I wouldn’t say I have a specific mantra at the moment. I do know that I am thinking a lot about how I can grow as an artist. For me right now that means placing value on risk-taking, trying new techniques, reading and researching, going to galleries here in DC, and making lots and lots of work. I’m inhabiting a growth mindset, embracing the love of learning, and allowing myself the opportunities to try and fail.
If you could meet any artist who would they be?
Helen Frankenthaler and Josef Albers. Frankenthaler’s work and soak-stain technique have influenced my painting methods. Albers’ paintings and writings on color theory and his pedagogy practice have become my current obsession.
Written by Diane Lindquist