The purpose of my artwork is to invoke an awakening of the sensual. Stimulating a perceptual, internal, and intellectual response for the viewer: a visual that speaks to life’s experiences. Creating symbols of universal connection underscores the relationship that one has to another and to nature.
Morphologies emerge in variable ways,
Protruding through space and time,
Yielding multifarious mazes.
More Than Just Us A hawk broke their shoulder, collided with a building encroaching their wetlands. The hawk was taken in,and with time and care, their shoulder healed. They were to be releasedat the urban pond where found injured. Dozens of us gathered on a clear mid-autumn day. They brought the bird over in a crate, said a few words […]
NATALIE CHRISTENSEN ARTIST STATEMENT Shadows and psychological metaphors are favored photographic subjects for me.My work as a psychotherapist for over 25 years called upon me to explore what ishidden from view, those aspects of the self or the environment that we want toturn away from or simply avoid. I was particularly influenced by the work of depthpsychologist Carl Jung and […]
The Seven Men of Eptagonia (with interjections from my grandfather) In a small town up the breast of the uppermost land mound there is a land of Seven Corners where – They do – there are seven men who like to sit on the seventh corner of the seven bendy hills – They Do! – positioning their white plastic chairs […]
The Veil In the light I whisper promises, Carried by the winds, As they echoed softly in the moonlit sky. I speak of my sorrows and plead my case, I shatter and break in that endless space. In between the knowing, That thin veil which holds the question, I lay all my tears and desires. I rest by that creek […]
Bette Ridgeway is best known for her large-scale, luminous poured canvases that push the boundaries of light, color and design. Her youth spent in the beautiful Adirondack Mountains of upstate New York and her extensive global travel have informed her colorful palette. For the past two decades, the high desert light of Santa Fe, NM has fueled Ridgeway’s art practice.
May a man look up from the utter hardship of his life and say: let me be like these. Hölderlin, In Lovely Blue. 1 Circa 1400 BCE. An olive tree in Vouvés, Crete. From ‘vouvismos’ meaning the whispering of the river flowing through. It wasn’t the only thing that lived then. There were many: cicadas and acanthus flowers, cacti and […]
Frozen in a burnt copper substrate, surrounded
With whorls and tides of a creature’s past, a steadfast
Four slats of discolored wood possess salmon streaks and steel
All night, your cheeks were hot, little one. I listened to your wails through the crackling yellow monitor next to my bed. Your father and I threw off our covers and walked up the stairs to your room. He lifted you from the crib and held you against his chest. Your cries became whimpers. I got out a plastic syringe […]
On July 23rd, 2018, I witnessed a 10’ flash flood tear past my Santa Fe home. A tsunami in a quiet valley, washing downstream animals, debris, and tumbling boulders, leaving behind a raw and reordered landscape.