Original art by Christine Schwathe
Hi! I'm Christine. I'm a painter, illustrator, printmaker, self-taught designer, seamstress and knitter, small time farmer, and I cook some pretty tasty food ( a necessity when you live as far away from civilization as I do)... let's just say I keep busy and that little bits and pieces of my life sneak into my art from all directions. I enjoy working in almost any medium and relish the fact that each creative project, even when seemingly unrelated, brings inspiration for the next.
I grew up in a small town in Southern Colorado, helping out with the family restaurant and inheriting not just a strong work ethic but a long creative tradition passed down from parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, friends and mentors. I continued my studies at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, where I became fascinated with printmaking and earned my degree in Fine Arts with a focus in printmaking and drawing. My interests have led me down many creative paths, lately, an obsession with oil painting where I've been able to come up with a mostly non-toxic method of painting which works well for me.
Today, I am living and working in a small casita at the base of the Sangre de Cristo mountain range in Northern New Mexico with my partner and fellow artist, Bradley Sleep, and a scattering of beasts, where my art has taken over a small room in our home. I hang out in there, surrounded by: scraps of paper, shelves of paint and pencils, sewing machines and folds of thrifted fabric, mugs of tea, and the occasional feline or canine companion, and obsess, in a mostly good and only slightly crazy sort of way, over brushstrokes and stitches, ink washes and pencil marks.
You can see some of my work in person at Keep Contemporary in Santa Fe, NM.
