Christiane Curtis, Artist

About Christiane Curtis

I grew up in Germany where I was regularly exposed to various art forms - architecture, painting, sculpture, music and dance. I was used to discussions of composition, colour and design. My grandfather painted watercolours and my father (a dentist) had an undiscovered talent for sculpture. I loved to paint. My teenage masterpiece was a mural I painted on my bedroom wall (sadly, I didn't take a picture of it).

After graduation from High School, I moved to Canada, and studied Speech-Language Pathology. It took me many years to figure out how much I missed creating. I took several photography courses, which taught me how to see. Later, I studied graphic design at St. Lawrence College for several semesters and then took art courses at Ottawa School of Art and later still at Kingston School of Art.

The combination of my interest in visual design and my interest in language and human communication represents the basis for many of my paintings. I am interested in exploring concepts relating to the human experience, for example hope, friendship, healing, paradox, self discovery etc. both visually as well as graphically. When painting, I often spend a lot of time researching word meanings and definitions and incorporate the printed information in my paintings. I am intrigued by words and meanings and the image of printed passages. Relating back to early assignments in the Graphic Design course, where we used coloured pieces of paper to play around with different compositions, I also incorporate paper scraps (coloured paper from wrapping paper, old calendars and flyers) into my paintings. Acrylics lend themselves beautifully to this playful process, as I can easily paste printed materials and paper onto the canvas to create a beautiful collage.