I Am Cristina Link: The Story Behind the Name
There is a moment in every artist's career when the vessel they have been using to carry their message is no longer big enough to hold it.
For a long time, my work was defined by the presence of animals. I painted wolves, jaguars, and birds while using them as guides, as totems, and as symbols to translate the human experience. Animals are still a huge part of my spiritual practices and I listen to their messages on a daily basis as they are and always will be the bridge between the internal world and the external one.
But recently, the bridge shifted for me in the studio.
I am Cristina Link, and I am an abstract artist.
This declaration isn't just a change in style; it is a fundamental shift in how I tell my story from Guatemala to the canvas. I realized that I no longer needed the "mask" of an animal to convey emotion. The energy I was trying to paint was too raw, too immediate, and too vast to be contained within the outline of a figure. And quiet honestly, painting forms and figures can give me a lot of anxiety.
My work has evolved into pure abstraction because I am no longer painting the symbol of the feeling; I am painting the feeling itself.
This evolution is grounded in the three pillars that define who I am and what I create, and why I create it.
The Primal Self
In my earlier work, animals represented our instincts. Now, through abstraction, I access the Primal Self directly. This is the part of us that exists before language and before societal conditioning. I spent a lot of time researching and exploring the “primal wound” that I lived with after my adoption from Guatemala. What I realized is that that ‘wound’ is where my light came in. It is where I am able to access my primal self, my true self, my radical authenticity and my strength. It is NOT a wound…it is the most beautiful part of my identity. When I approach a canvas now, I am not planning a composition; I am excavating. I use texture, deep earth tones, and intuitive mark-making to mirror the chaotic, beautiful, and untamed core that lives inside all of us.
Kinetic Resilience
My art is not static. If you look closely at my brushwork, you will see the evidence of movement that cannot be confined. The push and pull that I practice in my athletic life, and the scrape and the flow that got me out of my hardest times are all evident in my paintings.
This is Kinetic Resilience. It is the visual representation of bouncing back, of moving through resistance. Life is rarely a straight line; it is a series of collisions, recoveries and tough decisions . My abstract pieces capture that energy in motion, freezing the moment of resilience so it can be felt by the viewer.
Radical Authenticity
Moving from animal guides to abstraction was an act of Radical Authenticity and something I have walked through multiple times in my life already. It requires courage to remove the recognizable subject matter and present the viewer with something ambiguous. Something so deep within our souls that the viewer and collector can FEEL. It is a radical invitation to look deeper. I am no longer handing you a jaguar and saying, "This represents strength." I am handing you a storm of color and energy and asking, "What does your strength feel like?"
The Link Between Us
The name "Cristina Link" is more than a signature; its my raw soul on my sleeve, and it is a mission. My work is the link between the seen and the unseen, the polished exterior and the primal interior.
To my collectors and those following this journey: thank you. Whether you connected with the animal guides of the past or are resonating with the abstract energy of the present, you are part of this story. We are peeling back the layers, together, to find what is real.
