Diverse artist can't be pigeon-holed

City People
June 3rd, 2009

By Rebecca Roper Contributing Writer

Greenville artist Christina Sawicki opens her new studio Friday. (GEORGE GARDNER/Staff)

Don't try to put Christina Sawicki into any boxes – although, she's quite good at filling them with eye-catching material. At 24, Sawicki has already established a successful business as an interior designer and is working toward making a name for herself in several other art forms.

“My parents always encouraged me to dabble in anything that interested me, so by 18, I knew what I wanted,” she said.

She was able to procure an internship with a Greenville architectural firm and work with the interior designers there until she branched out on her own and established Christina Sawicki Designs on Woodruff Road. Through that business, she has been the decorator for several of the downtown condo buildings, as well as a few businesses.

Now, as she moves into a smaller but more visible space at Art Crossing at Riverwalk, she is ushering in a new era, which combines her design business with a gallery space to showcase her sculpture, jewelry and chandeliers.

Christina Nicole Studios (she used her middle name) officially opens Friday, and Sawicki said this will be an opening the likes of which Greenville's art scene has never seen.

“Well, for one thing, we're going to have a peacock,” she said.

Sawicki attended the Savannah College of Art and Design in Atlanta several years ago, and she said gallery openings there usually focus on a happening or event related to the art, in addition to the typical wine and hors d'oeuvres.

Sawicki often uses peacocks in her art, partly because she has a great source for vintage feathers, but also because “Charles Darwin said the startling beauty of the peacock undermined his theory (of evolution), so that makes me love peacocks,” she said.

She is also planning on having an “interactive sculpture” outside the studio and live music.

Sawicki said she began sculpting while taking a class at Greenville Technical College with local sculptor and instructor Linda McCune.

“I just loved it; I just love her, and she really encouraged me,” Sawicki said.

Sawicki works mostly in soapstone and granite. She describes her sculpture as “very organic.”

“We are trained to see certain shapes and forms. But there is so much more to see,” she said. “Through my sculpture I am trying to get people to see some of the other, less symmetrical forms around them.”

Sawicki had also begun refurbishing old light fixtures as part of her design business, when she couldn't find the right look. That also has taken on a life of its own.

Sawicki's refurbished jewelry is somewhat a fusion of those two art forms and is among her best-selling products.

“I think of the jewelry as miniature sculptures,” she said.

For each piece, Sawicki takes a piece of vintage jewelry and reconfigures it to give it an updated look.

For example, a vintage peacock feather is suspended from a blocky, silver chain, marrying the feminine-looking feather and the male-looking chain. Or two antique pendants are draped across the shoulders to create two focal points near the collar bones.

“Most necklaces just have the one focal point in the middle. I get so bored with that,” Sawicki said.

If there's anything Sawicki doesn't like, it's to be bored. (She spends 8-12 hours per day either meeting with clients or creating art. Oh, and in her downtime, she paints.) On the weekends, she has been working with Off the Coast Ministries of Greenville to build a pre-fabricated school building to be assembled in a South African village.

And from what we've seen so far, it's unlikely Greenville will grow bored with this energetic young artist any time soon.

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