Bio:
C.J. Swanson was born in Tacoma, Washington. She always knew that being an artist was part of who she was and who she would become. She was from a working class background where being an artist came as somewhat of a surprise to her mother. Even so, she was encouraged and brought joy to her family with her natural drawing abilities. She studied painting and drawing as well as theater and drama. She earned a 2-year degree. She was advised after she moved to Seattle to pursue more serious avenues as an artist so she took classes in life painting and life drawing at The Factory School of Art, which was taught by Susan Gofstein from Chicago. Wanting to pursue a more practical side of art, she went back to school to study graphic arts and then interior design, but painting was what she liked the most. That led her to begin painting in her living room studio. Her guidance toward fulfilling a life as an artist came when she met her mentor, who was teaching a Still Life painting class in 1991. She moved to Queens New York in the mid 90’s to live and experience the city that captured her spirit, she visits every year to visit friends and relatives. This was the beginning of her life as a practicing artist. C.J. has made art for public projects and commercial murals. With her spouse, they operated an art gallery where they offered art classes and gave monthly exhibitions to artists from around the Puget Sound. She has shown her work in many different venues and has sold several paintings. Her work is in Microsoft and Pierce County collections, as well as many private collections. She currently lives and paints in Tumwater near Olympia, Washington.
Artist Statement:
Starting out with a connection to my preceding works. I work using intuition and improvisation to develop a painting. I am endeavoring to capture ideas that are pictured in my mind. Sketching and drawing daily to stay visually fit, the concept works itself out eventually as long as I stick with the idea. My ideas are informed by solid structures, organic life and transparent elements of design seen in daily environment. These concrete, steel and glass structures are seemingly solid and unmovable, but I see them as organic. The forms move and bend in my imagery because I wish to create a new way of seeing. My concern is about discovery of the visual and to paint my personal artistic influences as they transform. I paint overlapping and sometimes colliding structural grid-like forms. I tether cells of color that relate to the borders around them. Sometimes they are floating in a net that supports the individual colors. What I see is an organic and floating entity of alternating hues. In my experience as a painter, I gravitate towards non-figurative, and non-representation with indications of actual forms and objects in my work.