The core of this new body of work is a poem I wrote recently, inspired by the way my two-year-old baby gradually discovers our surroundings and life. It also reflects my experience as an artist and new mom after moving to Whitehall, a small, mining, and rural town in Montana. My painting and installation speaks to the rawness, slowness, and beauty I find in our surroundings. It echoes the large space for contemplation and self-reflection that Whitehall offers. While it’s a very different environment from anywhere I’ve lived before, I’ve learned to deeply observe it, value it, and gradually bond with it. This happens in tandem with my baby’s way of assimilating and being of the natural world, deepening our connection to a unique landscape, and shaping the ongoing narrative of my work.

Biography:
     Cristina Marian is a Romanian-American visual artist best known for her highly experimental layered paintings investigating the notion of becoming, rather than being within fixed and stable grounds. Her work explores such themes as her experience within her community; togetherness and the sense of belonging; communal and global changes; and finding peace
within unpredictability. Marian holds a BFA in Painting from the National University of Fine Arts in Bucharest, Romania,
and an MFA from Montana State University, Bozeman. She works with a variety of mediums, including painting, sculpture, and public installation. She has exhibited internationally, including in Bucharest, Paris, Oslo, Dakar, and Vienna. In America,
Marian’s work has been shown throughout Montana, in Cincinnati, OH, Spokane, WA, West Chicago, IL and Flint, MI. Her most recent group show was “Secret Spaces” at Buckham Gallery in Flint, MI. “Nowhere To Be But Here” is her most recent solo exhibition at the Holter Museum of Art in Helena, Montana. She lives in Whitehall MT, and divides her time between working in
the studio, exhibiting her artwork, teaching, and spending time with her husband and their two-year-old baby.