We are delighted that Elizabeth Hayes Christopher has an extended feature/interview in the printed edition of The FLUX Review. To read the full article you can purchase the magazine here.
Elizabeth Hayes Christopher is a multidisciplinary artist, published poet, and filmmaker. Based in Santa Fe, New Mexico, Christopher immerses herself in a world of creativity, producing art that is alive and unpredictable. For more information, visit elizabethhayeschristopher.com.
All photography © scottchristopherart.com
Your parents introduced you to art at a very young age. Did you decide then that you wanted to become an artist, and what was your journey into the art world like?
Becoming an artist was not a destination for me, it has always been a way of being, a life force for my spirit and soul. By age six I had developed a strong desire to make things. Over time this making took many exciting forms, including painting, poetry, photography, drawing, sculpting, and making avant-garde films. These disciplines have had a profound influence on shaping my artistic odyssey. The act of creating has always been like breathing.
My parents immersed me in the arts, travel, and adventure. They encouraged and inspired me to have a curious mind and a love of learning. These gifts have proven to be instrumental catalysts in my artistic life. Vivid art-related recollections from my childhood include:
Alexander Calder’s Circus at the Whitney Museum. The exotic city of Tangiers, Morocco with my family at age five. Harry Jackson’s sculpture, Iroquois Guide II, at auction in New York City. Claude Monet’s Waterlilies at MoMA and the fascinating forms of sun-bleached animal skeletons on a ranch in Cora, Wyoming at age seven. I took a collection of these treasured bones home.
My advanced learning included studying art history at the Institute of European Studies in London, and art, photography, and poetry at Bowdoin College where I earned my Bachelor of Arts Degree. After graduating, my artistic evolution expanded in New York City for 17 years. As part of this stimulating time creating art and writing, I also studied horticulture and garden design at The New York Botanical Garden, floral design at Parsons School of Design, and creative writing at New York University. Since 2002, when I met my husband, noted artist and former professional baseball champion Scott Christopher, I have made art in our studios in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and our past studio in Chelsea, New York City, as well as in many other culturally intriguing locations worldwide.
Within your practice, you work with painting, photography, poetry, drawing, sculpture, and film. Is it important for you not to be defined by a specific style or medium?
These artistic disciplines all inform my art and expression. Each offers unique vantage points and tools to compose with, expanding my creative visions. One style or medium does not define me. You will see, hear and feel my ‘voice’ in all my work. This ‘voice’ is my style, and the broad range of creative forms I work with, combine, intersect and complement each other, amplifying the artistic thoughts, emotions, and ideas I explore. I make work that people can experience a personal journey through today and in the future. My art and writings are metaphorical doorways. I create doorways to exploration, doorways to shadow, doorways to light, doorways to discovery and remembering.
Tell us about your process from the initial concept to the final composition?
The adventure of creating is a passion for me. I love not knowing exactly where a piece is going when I begin it. As an artist, possibility, journey and discovery are thrilling! My creative process is influenced by the medium I am working with and the concept I am addressing. I draw from a rich reservoir of ideas, feelings, thoughts, images, learning, and life experiences. And my heart and soul are open to the place where I believe everything in the universe is connected. Intuition is a valuable tool I use often. Each of my artworks and writings are stepping stones towards the next that I create. They are part of an evolution, a continuous unfolding. I work with my piece of art or writing until there is an abundance of energy emanating from it. An energy that often pushes the boundaries beyond my knowing, and the traditional sense of images and words. My art is completed when it has become a ‘doorway’.
Artistic assignments have taken you to more than 25 countries. Do you have any particular favourites you can tell us about?
Travelling the world and experiencing other cultures greatly influences and advances my creative flow. I have passionately embraced this throughout my life. A few of my favourite memories of artistic projects and cultural intensives include:
1. Living near beautiful Regent’s Park in London, while studying art history at the Institute of European Studies. This was a significant period in solidifying my passion for the visual arts. I cherish my many, many visits to the National Gallery and Tate Gallery. Studying the paintings of Turner, Gainsborough and Constable were very impactful. London and my time living there will always hold a very special place in my heart.
2. Being selected by Lawrence Rinder, Chief Curator of the 2002 Whitney Biennial, to be a featured painter in the 2004 Museum of New Mexico Foundation’s FOCA Exhibition in Santa Fe. Speaking of the Whitney, as a side note, Scott and I were highlighted in the Wall Street Journal as the first public guests to enter the newly built Whitney Museum of American Art in 2015. As artists, it was exciting to be the first to step through the doors of this iconic museum on such a historic day for art.
3. Living and making art atop Paris in a studio located in the inspiring Marais, one of the City of Light’s oldest districts. During this time in Paris, Scott and I were co-executive directors of the Christopher Foundation for the Arts. As directors, we initiated and completed a donation from CFFTA to the Centre Georges Pompidou, with the assistance of Quentin Bajac, who, at the time, was Associate Curator of Photography at the museum. This offering was a collection of fine art photographic prints by the great Mexican photographer Manuel Carrillo. CFFTA’s mission is: ‘Building bridges between art and humanity for a better world.’ The deeply important humanitarian and art-related projects of my late father-in-law, Frank Christopher, beginning in 1947, inspired the formal founding of CFFTA in 2005 by Scott and myself. Frank initiated the first photographic exchange between the USA and the then USSR in 1961. His momentous efforts are considered to be the beginning of the cultural thaw between the two countries.
4. Experiencing exhilarating central and northern India. Creating while staying at the former retreat of the Maharajah of Jaipur, and photographing the vibrant Maha Shivratri festival from a rowing boat floating on the Ganges River, off the ghats of Varanasi.
5. Collaborating with Scott for our MOMENTS series on Spain’s Balearic Islands of Ibiza and Formentera. The beauty of the landscapes, gorgeous blues of the Mediterranean Sea, and bohemian atmosphere were incredibly stimulating.
6. Creating art and participating in cultural events during the Miaoulia Festival on the captivating island of Hydra, Greece, a destination and oasis for international artists. Swimming off the rocks in the Aegean Sea at sunset with Scott, and making art on this island, filled my heart and soul.
7. Documenting and exploring Chile’s ancient Easter Island and its monolithic Moai statues. Horses freely roamed the island. I even rode a galloping horse bareback!
8. Exploring the lunar landscapes of the Atacama Desert in northern Chile. This otherworldly terrain is home to the driest non-polar desert in the world, as well as the clearest skies. Scott and I photographed the rarest flamingos on Earth, the James’s; created images for our MOMENTS series at an altitude of 15,000 feet; and watched my notebook and pencils shaking on a table as a massive, 8.2 magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of Chile.
