As I experience my life, I try not to be distracted by the visual. I want to have a more subtle perception of energies in order to see greater truth about what I am experiencing. I used to think that some things are not what they seem. Now I believe almost nothing is what it appears to be. So to know what it is we are experiencing, we must let go of our attachment to form and feel from an innocent state. We tend to see things through our conceptual framework which greatly hinders our vision. So the practice is to inquire into all of our concepts and find what is real in them, if anything.

As a painter I work in layers. I often begin by painting a base level consisting of natural patterns, like one would see in ocean washed sand, wood grains, rocks, clumps of tall grasses, and clouds. Then I layer in more compositional elements, also in patterns––like tree rings, or reflections in water. My work over the last year has been mostly about forms of light reflected in moving liquids. I'm attempting to depict the feeling of simple movement out of unmanifested silence. Awareness, or consciousness, that is just starting to exist.

The first stage of the field which I'm expressing is natural patterns. I see it as orderly, purposeful creation, directed by some impulse. The fluid quality is the continuous movement of our perception or experience of all this, whatever it is. I delight in the reflection forms sometimes touching each other, sometimes existing alone and in the larger patterns they form all together. I am starting to incorporate the Golden Ratio in or under the composition and in the forms themselves, naturally.

– Christie O'Grady, Dec. 2007.

Bio:
Graduated Memphis College of Art, 1981.

For several years did a number of juried outdoor shows, and participated in three museum shows.

Represented by Stella Polaris Gallery, Los Angles, for a couple years.

Sold out of my studio in the San Francisco Bay Area and began career as a mom in 1988.

I worked for several years as a potter during early motherhood.

Resumed painting in the 1990's.
Represented by Human Scale Gallery, Chattanooga TN
One woman show in 1996.

Worked exclusively in pastel for several years.
Represented by Sirius Gallery in Santa Fe, NM
One woman show in 2001.

Worked in various media for several years until Mom duties were mostly complete in 2005.

Painting studio in Chattanooga from 2005, doing intensive research and development up to present.