CHRISTINE ALLAN

Painting, Works on Paper, Illustration, Found Objects, Swarovski Crystals, Pyrographics

City: Chemainus, British Columbia

Website: http://www.christineallanart.com

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/artbychristineallan

Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/christineallanart/

Artist Statement: “My work is an exploration as well as a reaction to the world around me. I am intrigued by the idea of what art is and how art can overcome the incommunicable aspects of our lives, how it can be enlightening and healing. Using a mix of mediums and materials, I enjoy the process of exploring those mediums in colour and form. Working within the process, the work emerges, revealing a subtle interplay of connections between conceptual schemata and sensuous experience."

Biography: International artist Christine A. Allan, was born in the prairie province of Manitoba, Canada. She moved to the West Coast of Canada in her teens and has lived in British Columbia ever since. Christine first pursued art as a child, in part to cope with an unstable family life. Her prairie roots and then her introduction to the environment of the West Coast significantly impact her work. While studying First Nations Art and Archaeology at Simon Fraser University, she met and married a First Nations man from the interior of BC. His job took them north to Williams Lake, then to a remote Native Community on the West Coast of Vancouver Island, where she learned First Nations Art from a respected Nuu-chun-nulth sculptor and teacher, George John. She also studied Art History and Fine Art through the Thompson Rivers University Open Learning, and continued studies in Fine Art at Emily Car University. Now in her 60's, Christine has never stopped exploring and experimenting with various forms of art. She has now been an exhibiting artist for over 25 years, with her work in private collections around the world. Three of her First Nations inspired pieces were part of a museum show to bring attention the plight of wolves in Japan, and one of them also won second prize at the Coho Festival in North Vancouver, BC. Most recently Christine receiving an Award of Excellence for her new environmental work at the London Biennale (2019). In 2014, one of her early environmental pieces was accepted by Leonardo DiCaprio as a gift in thanks for his appreciation of art and his environmental work with the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation.