I started following Christine aka TurnstyleART a few months ago on Instagram. Christine is not your run of the mill artist, she takes ordinary materials that people would otherwise discard, like envelopes and glass and uses them to create the most beautiful pieces of work. Art that is good for the soul and the environment!
I first met her at Project Market and absolutely loved her stuff, not to mention she is the most adorable thing ever and I wanted to put her in my pocket. A few weeks after the market, she sent me a piece she did of my logo, I was beyond amazed and knew it was time for us to meet. Christine invited me over to her awesome apartment and work space in The Heights, we talked art, ate brownies and she handed me my new present! How adorable is it?
What’s your name? Christine Tischio
What do you do? I’m an elementary school art teacher at Clinton Elementary in Maplewood, I teach kindergarten – 5th grade so I have 600 little kids that I see every week, we have art for 50 minutes once a week.
Let’s talk about your art, what’s TurnstyleART? It’s all about reusing and upcycling things, so using ordinary objects in extraordinary ways. My biggest thing is my emblem art and that’s what I stumbled on by accident. I was looking through my mail one day and I noticed that NJ Motor Vehicles has this tree pattern inside of it, and I was like “oh that’s cool” so I took it and held onto it.
I didn’t know what I was going to do with it… my school is really into being “green” so I decided that maybe I should do something with the envelope for earth day: then I realized other companies have different patterns… and there’s hundreds of them.
My first piece was a character from “Where the Wild Things Are” because I am obsessed with that book. This was the first one I did for fun and I brought it in to show my principal and she said I need to do this for real. I had no goal of selling them at all I was just doing it for a hobby.
I entered a piece in my schools auction and I got tons of awesome feedback so I started making more and I sold a couple over the next year… then last summer I walked over Kanibal Home and I asked Kristen (the owner) if my pieces would be a good fit and if she’d be interested in selling them…. she told me about Project Market and I had a really good time there! It was my first event and I can’t wait to get involved in more.
How would you describe your style of art? I don’t know that I have a set style. I try to do a little bit of everything. I started out by doing famous character- which I really enjoyed… making recognizable characters in an unrecognizable way. I wanted to try some funkier thins so I made that dance cat lady over there…I also asked Kristen if she was looking for anything in particular so she asked me to do a Jersey City series…. so I did a lot of these NJ things and I got a lot of requests from there.
I made a bunch of those for the market and then I wanted to some pop art stuff to showcase the colored envelopes.
My art is different for sure… the more details there are in the image I am creating the more patterns I get to use, so people can see that there are all these crazy patterns from envelopes that people would normally toss in the trash.
What you are doing is earth friendly. Yeah totally and even with my glass stitching. I get most pieces from thrift stores and estate sales. Even the frames I use for my collages are recycled… My art is all about reusing and up cycling, like that funky table over there, my little dino cookie plate, I find it really cool to transform old things into something new.
Have you always been into that? Actually it started in college; I had this really passionate professor for Sustainability class. On the first day of class, he brought us outside to check out a giant compost machine….The way he spoke reminded me of like Billy Mays the Oxy Clean guy. He was super fired about the cause, his passion was contagious. I just felt like I needed to get involved. After class I came up to him and I asked what can I do to help and that’s what got me into it thinking you throw all of this food out sits in a landfill and it takes time to decompose but we are not doing anything with it, when you could be turning it into a nutrient rich soil, using it around campus and saving money, and that’s what got the wheels turning.
How long have you been doing art? I’ve always loved drawing, I remember sitting in front of the TV trying to draw Fred Flinstone when I was in 3rd grade. I didn’t start making theses collages until about 2012…it sat around on my desk for a while and I made a couple here and there but it started to pick up at around in 2014.
What is your creative process? I don’t usually have a set plan, If I find something that interests or inspires me, i’ll work it into a piece. For example, a couple of weeks ago it was International Womans Day, so I thought it would be cool to make a Wonder Woman collage….it’s whatever that hits me at that time or a couple of people have emailed me asking if you could do this piece for me.. I do some other famous characters on the side like Tom and Jerry, but if it hits me I just go for it. I got an awesome space so I can come home and spread out my envelopes all over the place like a crazy person, and dig through and find out what patterns work and then draw, cut, and glue!
Show me all these envelopes… This was one of the envelopes that I got from Delta Dental. Companies put these patterns inside to protect your personal information. The coolest part is that each company uses different patterns. I’be collected a huge assortment over the years and try to find whatever color, value or texture I need to make each part of the collage.
That’s so cool, not im going to look at envelopes more differently now. Totally! It’s amazing how many patterns are out there! I’ve got all of my family, friends and co-workers saving envelopes for me. Even my nana in Texas sends me her envelopes!
How long have you been in Jersey City? About a year and a half. I’ve only been at this place since October. I’ve lived downtown on 4th Street for a year and stumbled upon this place in September. I couldn’t be happier, it is such a perfect fit!
Do you have a favorite Jersey City hangout spot? I love the Tacquiera, the Sangria man, that shit is bangin [laughs] and the quesadillas are the best! That’s my #1 spot.
Is there anything else you want people to know about you and TurnstyleART? That’s a tough question, I guess I just want to give people a new perspective on things, try to make them look at something in a new way. Got example that suitcase table over there…. I found it in a garage sale, I cleaned it up, added some funky mid-century legs and cast iron claw feed to it and bam! I’ve got a brand new one of a kind table.
I love it!! your whole place is so great! Thanks!!
You kind of remind me of someone? People tell me that I look like a cartoon character [Laughs]
What are your future plans with your art? I’m hoping to get involved in some more markets and other events around Jersey City, but really I just enjoy the process of making these pieces. The fact that people are interested in what I’m creating is an incredible and surreal thing for me!
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