Artist Statement

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I am a self-taught artist, born and raised in France.  Every aspect of French culture is infused by art, and my family enjoyed sewing, decorating, furniture and home restorations as hobbies.  This upbringing became imprinted into my way of life. After moving to the US, I initially focused on adjusting to a new culture.  I learnt a new language, went to college, and ultimately obtained a graduate degree in Clinical Psychology. For the next 30 years, I worked as a therapist in all sorts of milieus, facilitating individual and group sessions with clients facing a whole array of mental illness and substance abuse issues. I then later specialized in emergency psychiatric care. I eventually retired as a therapist and am now dedicated to my art.

Both therapy and art-making end up revealing a human being. During their process, surprises arise, and the planning of a session or of an art piece becomes untangled into a different form. This is when I am home. This is when art in therapy and art in art-making is a self-transforming process. Upon completion of a piece the puzzle parts become cohesive, similar to the moment of insight once therapy becomes fruitful. This is also when art has become the tool that ends up defining me with empowering results.

Hopefully, on a larger scale, the product of my work becomes an impactful social or/and aesthetic message to the viewer. The main guiding principles of my therapeutic approach were for the client to gain the ability to transcend unfortunate social/environmental and genetic predispositions. I believe that we hold the responsibility to define ourselves and to create meaning in our lives despite all obstacles. Once you are able you accomplish that, you feel more healthy and fulfilled.   These guiding therapeutic principles are applied into my own life. I see my art as a transformative process and as a therapeutic vehicle to ups and downs in life.

I wake up in the morning and art is usually the first thought on my mind. I am ready to go, create, transform and feel fulfilled at the end. People have asked me why I do art or what I might do with my art projects. I do art because it calls me. I do it because I have to. It is a daily commitment. So it is a call and a choice. Art is an act of transformation and meditation. I transform things into other things and they in turn transform me. I become who I should be in the most genuine way. Nothing becomes something. What better way could there be?

Events/Exhibits:

2023

-  Collage Group Show, Look Listen Gallery, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

-   Juried Show, Virginia Artists, Charles H. Taylor Visual Arts Center, Hampton, Virginia

-   Juried Show, Suffolk Art League/Suffolk Art Gallery, Suffolk, Virginia

-   Resident Artist at Ukwensi Gallery (Ghent/Norfolk)

2022

-  Annual Art Show, Chester County, Philadelphia, 

-  Mobile Billboard Art Show, Expometro Mobile Billboard Art Show, Miami Beach, Florida

Christine Pianin

(215) 880-1958

Email: chloe102199@aol.com

Website: www.christinepianin.com

Instagram: @chrisartz1