Artist Statement

Christy Frisken is a visual artist who lives and works where the Fraser River meets the Salish Sea in Vancouver, Canada. She is anchored by her curiosity and reverence for the energy of physical spaces, and how the human body moves through them. Christy creates large-scale acrylic paintings and oil paintings, describing her growing body of work as a series without end, and a continuously evolving map of her subconscious.

At the age of 21, Christy visited Musée d'art Contemporain de Bordeaux while on a solo bicycle trip on the west coast of France, where she first witnessed the work of Louise Bourgeois, the artist she credits for prompting her to decide she would become an artist, though she did not enter art school until she reached 30 years of age.

Influenced by artists such as Hilma af Klint, Beatriz Milhazes, Tracey Emin, Helen Frankenthaler, and the Quilters of Gee’s Bend, Christy is also a long-time practising astrologer, perpetual student of Buddhism, and proponent of DIY herbalism. Since 2020, she has swapped foraging for non-acquisitional observance of plant growth cycles, as a means to develop deeper communication with the natural world. It is this slowed down approach that now informs her artistic and spiritual practices, and her decision to step away from sharing her work on social media networks.
 

Christy obtained a BFA in Visual Arts from ECUAD (2012) after retiring from a 15+ year career as a bicycle messenger. Her work has been presented in many galleries including Access Gallery, Beaumont Studios, Plaskett Gallery, Richmond Art Gallery, and Surrey Art Gallery.

2023