ART
MARCH/APRIL 2019 | TAMPA BAY MAGAZINE 151
Christina Bertsos has the soul of an artist. Since the
age of 5, when she began drawing, art has been her
passion. Growing up in Chicago, she studied at the
city’s School of the Art Institute before moving to New
York to join the honors program at the Fashion Institute of
Technology. Along with her degree in fashion design, she also
graduated with honors from Loyola University in Chicago.
Now living in Dunedin, she found herself drawn to
sculpture eight years ago after working primarily with paint
for many years. She experimented with stone at George
Wagner’s former studio and developed her skills while being
guided and coached by other artists working there. Each piece
became a journey, where she would use different tools and
types of stone. Soon she discovered that the stones somehow
began to “talk” to her. She found them to be inherently
beautiful, waiting for her to release their underlying form as
she coaxed their natural beauty out by eliminating anything
she believed should be removed.
Her work is multifaceted and fluid, seeking to be touched.
The style of each piece is determined by what she sees in her
mind when she begins to chip away the extraneous. Despite
being stationary, the pieces move, not literally, but rather in
harmony with the viewer’s eyes. They create an emotional
bond with the viewer, who experiences the subtle curves and
gentle flow of these rock hard objects that at times seem to be
soft and pliable.
Listening, a soapstone sculpture on a black granite
base, is Christina’s ode to stillness.
Sculptor Christina Bertsos of Dunedin was
inspired by the universal desire of
connection in Embrace.