Creatively Thinking

 I began experimenting.  At the same time, I started seeing history not as a progressive linear line moving forward towards something better, but as carrying things forward from the past, mixing the past to the present. History became layered for me, I saw the concept of layering, not in my creative paintings in a different way, a different perspective.

At the same time began a series of the earth and its layering, I was working on pieces for a solo exhibition in January 2024. If I bring layers of history forward, repeat the stories that are hidden in those layers, retell them, and create something from them, looking at them in a present light, history could then be seen as layering and not progressive. For example, I experimented with the concept of a layered history in a work I called “Turquoise Jacket,” The jacket is a story of a young person inheriting their grandmother's turquoise jacket.  The jacket smelled like the grandmother, and the jacket brought up memories of the stories the grandmother told and the value of this stone turquoise and their ancestors and families.  The new works I am creating challenge me, allow me to move beyond a style I had become very comfortable with, and learn many new things.  It is experimental and exciting. 

And the content and concept of the work have changed, and that is fun.  You can see the painting “Turquoise Jacket” if you follow this link on my website.  https://christinealfery.com/products/the-sky-stone-jacket?_pos=1&_sid=b9d201f7d&_ss=r  When I create work, not just the work for the Earth series but for everything I create there is always a concept behind the work, and I write about it. 

I find creative work without content meaningless.  For example, all the political so-called artwork today is in my opinion, not art.  It is simply copying what someone else thinks and repeating it, this is progressive history writing, and it is not the unique original idea.  Something art used to have but doesn’t anymore.  Unique and original by bringing history forward from the layers of stories from the past, blending them into the present and making something different, unique, and original. 

Does art need to be unique and original?  In my opinion yes, otherwise the artist is just copying from someone else's thinking, not their own.  Another excellent example of what they are calling art today is wall décor, but I won’t go on about that because well, it is not art just being called art.