May 2024

Wellspring Mother Artist Feature

Christen Yates

We’re honored to introduce Christen Yates, a central Virginia based painter who lives with her husband and four children- two of whom are now off to college - a flock of hens, goats, and a rescue dog. When not in Virginia, her family enjoys summers in Cape Ann, MA where she grew up. Christen works primarily in oils while also exploring with watercolor and egg tempera. "My paintings seek not simply to observe, but to explore our relationship with the land as well as its flora and fauna, to connect my vulnerability and fragility with the created world’s. They emerge from a deep love for and care of the land. Focusing especially on the Blue Ridge Mountain area of central Virginia and the coast of Cape Ann, Massachusetts, I use loose and suggestive strokes that imply an immediacy of experience within which I want the viewer to linger.  Painting for me is a process of paying attention, of looking at the layers of meaning we ascribe to our placed-ness and hopefully evoking moments of re-humanizing connections."

We enjoyed learning more about Christen and encourage you to check out her beautiful artworks at www.christenyates.com and please follow her on Instagram: @christenbyates 

Enjoy!
Mia + Jess

WELLSPRING: To what do you attribute your style of making, or where do you look for inspiration?

CHRISTEN: I am inspired deeply by nature, by authors & poets who love nature like Annie Dillard, Wendell Berry and Mary Oliver. I am inspired by artists who walk the line between representation and abstraction in the landscape, starting with John Singer Sargent's watercolors then, into Helen Frankenthaler and Joan Mitchell's abstract works in the 50's/60's, to too many artists now to mention.

WELLSPRING: We’d love to know more about the space where you create. What does it look like? Is it within your home? What is the view like outside your window? ect...

CHRISTEN: I'm grateful to work out of my home studio which was a garage that our friend helped us convert using his simple barn and timber frame style with raw pine wood floors and white walls. I have a small window facing South where I can see our goats and nearby mountain, Buck's Elbow. I have a wall of glass sliders that face North out to various trees and distant mountain views -and the too regular Amazon delivery vehicle!

WELLSPRING: How has your motherhood journey impacted your creative process or your way of seeing / thinking?

CHRISTEN: Motherhood, like creating, is a constant exploration of the tension between grit and grace, between boundaries and freedom, between challenge and support, between discipline and rest. It a beautiful and messy dance.

WELLSPRING: One of our new favorite questions: Do you have a favorite children’s book? Either from your childhood or from reading with your own children?

CHRISTEN: The Anne of Green Gables series and Charlotte's Web were definite favorites and while my girls didn't fall in love with Anne like I did, I remember laying in our hammock with my youngest, both of us in tears as we read through Charlotte's death.

WELLSPRING: How and where do you see your faith intersect with your creative expression as a mother artist?

CHRISTEN: I work bi-vocationally as a campus minister and artist so the two are often intersecting. Our church also hired me as an artist in residence several years ago to create 7 large panels representing each season of the liturgical year. But, more abstractly, faith holds both tremendous mystery and tremendous hope - two elements that are essential in my studio. Where and how paintings form is always mysterious to me and elusive of any grasp of certainty or control. And, while that can be frustrating, I still find that creating art (like practicing a faith), when done with presence and humility, is a beautiful act of hope in a world that desperately needs it.

WELLSPRING: What excites you about what you are working on right now?

CHRISTEN: I recently took a sustainable art workshop so I'm really excited to push more deeply into having a non-toxic studio and practice. I've been slowly replacing my oil paints with non toxic pigments from a wonderful women-owned business that I mix with oil or duck eggs from our farm to make natural paints. I'm also continually excited with how to push the line between representation and abstraction of landscapes and flora.

WELLSPRING: What encouragement or wisdom would you share with another mother wanting to pursue her creative call?

CHRISTEN:  Annie Dillard wrote, "how we spend our days is of course how we spend our lives." Our vocation as an artist is available to us in the daily mundane things ("quotidian mysteries" as Kathleen Norris wrote" ). Decorating a home, getting dressed, planning activities, making a meal, offering hospitality - these are all creative acts that can prime us for living into a more robust creative call. More specifically, taking out the watercolors or clay with your kids could be a small start and lead to nap-time practices that before you know it, turn into larger and larger chunks of time. In addition, find creative community! There are so many folks who are hungering for creative community!

WELLSPRING: Thank you so much for responding to our interview questions! Would you please share with us where we can see, read, or experience more of your creative work?

CHRISTEN: www.christenyates.com // @christenbyates (Instagram)

We hope you enjoyed this Wellspring Mother Artist feature!

Stay tuned for more features within each newsletter. Are you Interested in being featured? Send us an email over at wellspringmotherart@gmail.com with a statement of interest and share your Instagram @ handle or other social media presence.