Christine Lee Tyler

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Artist Statement

In my work, I engage with my own mortality and temporal existence. My process involves using synthetic stencils that replicate nature in a repeated fashion to address the mundanity of life. I use “flora-like” stencils throughout all of my recent work as I view these die cuts as a reduced, controlled form that is taken from nature. By using these forms, I am addressing the control I/we try to obtain over our own environment, and hence, my/our own survival. In each work, I use the same shape to create both an orderly and chaotic composition.

By hand, I organize patterns that align with one another and then randomly overlaying those same patterns. Through this process, I am driving a discourse of a monotonous routine unfolding into a chaotic and lawless environment. The disorganized and randomly layered placement of these stencils represents an uncontrollable and failed attempt at dominating our inevitable ephemeral existence. The end result of each painting evolves into an aesthetically pleasing piece that camouflages a darker narrative.

I often use arched shapes in my art that are derived from architectural ruins and tombstones. By utilizing these forms, I am illustrating humanity’s attempt at permanence in the face of the inevitable impermanence of life. What emerges from juxtaposing these shapes through redundancy fuels an overarching narrative of the banality and ultimate folly of the human struggle to dominate our fleeting presence in contestation with the natural world.

www.christineleetylerstudio.com