Meet the Artist

Hi there! In this lifetime, dimension and current time in space, I am called Christina Lovisa and I am a compulsively creative individual. For as long as I can remember, I have wanted to alter the appearance of things so that they would fit into my sensibilities of “cool”. I guess that’s what I call art. Paint in a tube or a jar begs to be layered on top of images and papers full of texture and design until by scraping through, the soul of the art begins to reveal itself. Old furnishings, barren spaces, cast-off clothing, it all whispers to me and reveals hidden potential unseen to most.

I absorb the understanding of properties of all sorts of materials from art supplies to hardware store mediums to see new and creative applications for them. What primer to use when and which glue to choose over another are as intrinsic to my being as knowing what to eat when I’m hungry. Let’s just say I am an art-supply nerd.

I married the perfect man for me in 1995. Paul gets me. He gives me the wide berth required to express my creative self no matter how big or small a project, or how successful or unsuccessful they may turn out. Paul - I am really am sorry that I thought I could repaint our back hall floor black with chalk paint. The sales clerk lied! In any case, I am so blessed to have a handyman, fixer, maker-of-anything at my side. Our relationship truly is a great example of teamwork.

Over the past 15 years or so, I’ve been keenly paying attention to the unseen, unheard marching orders guiding my creative journey. I opened a studio/store with little more than a belief that if you build it, they will come. I learned the hard way, that if you build it in a remote part of the city that few people travel to, they don’t come. That saying needs to be updated to if you build it online or where there is a ton of foot traffic they will come, otherwise, rethink before you build.

That little shop of mine, St. Elmo’s Fire, did teach me a lot about the business side of art. I got to learn from the manufacturers of print products to the distributers right though to the sales and clients’ buying perspective. So as it turns out, the contacts and information gathered is what fuelled my retail/commercial interest in pursuing art.

With no formal training in art, I continued to gain practice and knowledge of mediums by attending creative courses in (almost) anything. To date, I’ve dabbled in and been impressed by my “success” at painting - acrylic, watercolour, mixed media and encaustic, soldering, enamelling and welding, printmaking and silk-screening, sewing and sculpting, life-drawing, pottery and ceramics, jewelry making and wire-wrapping to my latest toe-dip-in-the water, amateur taxidermy. I continue to evolve as an artist by learning from great artists and the mediums in which they have become proficient.

I developed and created a program entitled Two Worlds Collide - which is the stable combination of mixed media and encaustic painting through the use of non-acrylic based paints and mediums. I have published a small DIY book under the same and created a DIY walk-through video, a mini-course, for the visual learner to follow along in the comforts of his/her own studio.

To date my art has been licensed, published, sold in fine art galleries, printed and reproduced on wearables. I have two art-fedoras that were designed and produced in collaboration with Cirque du Soleil for the Michael Jackson ONE show in lasVegas. I continue to work with individuals requiring an artistic slant to their productions/spaces and projects.

Got a project requiring a cool-art eye? Let’s talk. This exploration has become my journey. I take direction from Bruce Springsteen’s song, Brilliant Disguise; “God have mercy on the man who doubts what he’s sure of.” I am certain, I have no doubts, that creativity is my way/my path. I follow where it leads me, and my heART and soul dance together.