Actually, I love my job. Loved it. Introducing college-age students to great works of literature, philosophy and art, giving a context to these works and exploring ways to approach them has been a total privilege. I loved their excitement, their engagement, the simple fact of their youth. The boys growing into their male pride. Every girl beautiful, although most not knowing it, they were sometimes fierce, sometimes soft and fresh. Helping them grow up, I grew up. And like many of them, I have graduated.
So now, on from discussing art to making it. I have been painting for ten years now and pursuing it seriously for five. By seriously, I mean making daily work a priority. How nice it will be to do this without struggle and exhaustion. Or, that’s what I’m thinking it will be like , having quit my day job.
This time last year, out of the blue, a friend of a friend offered me an empty space, to use as a gallery, event space, whatever. Thus was born “artefact”, our gallery in Knowlton. More on the gallery in future posts. Here are some paintings that sold this past summer. Altogether, I sold about 17.
Snow on Pines, 2013. Christine Stonehewer, acrylic on canvas.
Dream of Ste. Brigide, 2013. Christine Stonehewer. Acrylic on canvas.
The Golden Bough, 2013. Christine Stonehewer. Acrylic and gold leaf on canvas.
Untitled, 2013. Christine Stonehewer. Acrylic on paper.
Showing my art, selling it and making it in the public space of artefact has been life-changing. For the first part of my working life I shared the meanings of art with students and deeply believed that these meanings would inform their lives and help them be better people. Art is a kind of religion for me in which the individual has the duty to explore and create meaning. In the coming years of my life as an artist I commit to doing that religious duty everyday.
