Adam Christensen

Bio
Adam Christensen was raised in Bountiful, Utah. He attended Utah Valley University where he received his BFA in painting. He was accepted to the University of Utah where he is currently working on his Master’s of Fine Art. He has a wife and three children and is living in Orem, Utah.

Artist Statement
In a society obsessed with consumption, addicts can be found in abundance. Through my own struggles with addiction, both first and third person, I have seen the many ways it affects and changes people and their relationships. Addicts and those that love and interact with them struggle with the conflicting emotions of love and hate, trust and skepticism, anger and sadness. This duality eats away at the foundations of our community, undermining the strength and stability of our relationships, until those involved are forced to choose one personality or the other.
These emotions and experiences are often pushed aside and hidden due to fear, shame, and a community that does not understand. My work addresses the individual and collective experiences each of us has with addiction. By starting the conversation we hide from, we can gain a mutual understanding of addiction and ourselves.
Through the use of text both legible and illegible I draw on the conversations, thoughts, and writings we use to sift through problems. This stream of information is constantly running, consciously or unconsciously, hidden and exposed and is the basis of the decisions we make.