“I’ve never left New York, but don’t you worry. My mind travels.” —Monsees

Christine Monsees was born in February 1977 in Farmingville, New York. Ironically, a Valentine baby born in the seventies by the name Christine, like the car in the John Carpenter’s film by the same name — the one that made its owner do evil things.

Monsees has always drawn, but wanted to learn how to communicate beyond her own natural ability — which led her to study graphic design at New York’s FIT; “I always thought that my sketch book was just a piece of paper, a diary of my thoughts documenting the things and people I see and meet. Now, I think I understand the difference between something your mother would put on a refrigerator and a piece of artwork. I'd like to think that what I do is art. Having learned how to conceptualize in school, my pieces have a depth. My sketch book has transpired into 'real' illustrations. My visions have become more eccentric,” states Monsees.

Her illustrations have been interpreted as unique, unorthodox, strange with a tendency to gothic and surrealism, but is this a true fact to the artist? "I've been told I have a style, and learning how not to copy myself has been challenging, speaking of commercial work. I am the lint on a sweater. I imagine myself to be the fly on the wall. Sometimes, I feel like I'm not even in the room — I observe situations as if I were not involved. I notice odd things, things that other people don't. Because of this, in my work, I steer clear of the obvious and explore subjects and forms beyond their existence. My work has been called ‘gothic’ and ‘surreal,’ although I am not sure what that means. I just work with lines, textures, and patterns, developing imagery and ideas. I guess, on a surreal level. I never know where a piece is going to end up. It may be the transformation of detail that metamorphoses into line art or the media of watercolor or a bleeding pen that inspire fluidity and a change for the unexpected in my work.”

Monsees’s artwork is inspired on the depths of the night, in which forms change drastically; boundaries between real and imaginary barely exist. The form of a tree at nightfall conjures images of herself lying beneath the clouds as a child — taking it all in. Not only the shape of a tree, but the shadows, the negative space. This imaginative process is similar to taking ‘mind pictures,’ the visions are as real as photographs: “When I start to put them down, lines and shapes begin to move and change. At times, I'll see a circus of dragons in a pattern of leaves. If I blink, I am afraid I'll loose the image — but immediately thereafter, another appears. I believe in turning away from the over-polluted, obvious imagery. Innovation comes from the unexplored which shall prevail through individual minds — in the ways in which different people see and interpret life.”

She currently works as a commercial artist in NYC, and has been illustrating for the online design-trend magazine Visual Arts Trends; where you can view some of her illustrations.