Mindfulness - a statement from artist Cristine Cambrea

As a visionary artist, I use my inner emotion and intuition to guide me. I do not work in the traditional process that incorporates sketching and planning. After that first line, shape, or color makes its way to the canvas, I get lost in non-thought. It is my time to meditate--and when my time with the canvas is complete, I have a creation that in some way represents my dreams and life experience. This may not be understood for quite some time, but from experience, I now trust in my process and can dissect it when I am ready.

My painting process is very expedient. I quickly make a decision as to what colors I am going to use. Ultimately when I paint, I am preparing the canvas for my drawing. When I feel like there are enough options to work with, I am done painting. At times, the painting can take as little as ten minutes to complete. After the canvas is prepared, I study it in the four directions, deciding which direction it will go. I would say that this is when I am most attentive in my creative process and snap out of dream world to make a decision--which way is up? Sometimes I see it in multiple directions and this has lead to the "Flipped" series. Once the direction has been determined, I then bring the piece to life with my ink drawing. The shapes formed by the paints dictate what I draw as do the negative spaces. I often see faces throughout the piece--but this "seeing" is not limited to art, it includes my every day seeing as well.

My hope is that my work will be a tool of this special kind of seeing for people. Not taking an object simply at face value. Everything we see is more interesting and complicated than the title we attach to it. You can look at a tree OR you can SEE the tree in its individuality. Trees are very much like people in the way that their environment and experiences with it make up the tree. A harsh winter, a bird pecking at the surface, or an animal digging a hole inside to live in, a kid climbing it--all of the experiences the tree has had have changed that tree just like what we have gone through in our lives has altered and changed us and not just physically but emotionally and energetically as well.

Statement from Cristine Cambrea, cover artist #5 issue of 10x3 plus poetry journal, "Mindfulness"