Christine Ferrouge, Oakland based artist with Squirt Gun Gangster, 2016, Oil on canvas, 48 x 60 inches in “Deadlocked and Loaded”. Beautiful, large scale, simple paintings yet rich in movement and power in the way Ferrouge captures the simple motions of little boys at play with guns. Having a lot of nephews and grandsons, it is amazing and somewhat perplexing on their propensity to want guns and to shoot and destroy things. They say (the “they” probably being manufacturers of violent video games) that playing these games is not a prelude to violence but I have to wonder at being desensitized to killing and shooting after hundreds of hour of this “play”.
Ferrouge says, “How does this young boy know how to cross the terrain like a gangster on patrol? Handed water pistols on a hot day, he crossed the parking lot of the apartment complex in this pose. I am intrigued by boys’ seemingly natural readiness to use guns.”
Christine Ferrouge grew up in Minnesota and fell in love with painting at a young age. Her early influences include the American Ashcan Painters and studying in Florence, Amsterdam, and the Dominican Republic. After graduating with a BFA in painting from the University of Evansville, Indiana, Ferrouge taught art in urban Chicago and Los Angeles. Her recent honors include: selection for the de Young Museum juried exhibition, solo show at Gray Loft Gallery, Kipaipai fellowship, and acceptance into the Los Angeles Art Association. She exhibits weekly in her studio during Oakland Art Murmur’s Saturday Stroll. Ferrouge curates for Werkshack, directs Art Route Oakland, and serves on Oakland Art Murmur’s venue committee.
Ferrouge paints anthropological narratives of childhood where character and identity are forming quietly beneath the surface. Her larger than life paintings document the serious work of imaginative play with familiar, yet mysterious moments, often inspired by the artist’s own three daughters.
See more at http://christineferrouge.com and @christineferrouge
