Filipino-Chinese artist Christine Ong-Dijcks offers comfort and fun through her warm, vibrant paintings of places and people and colorful, whimsical images of our wonderfully complex world.

 

Her work is inspired by the three continents of her life. Her cousin and fellow artist, Charlie Co, inspires her to embrace her creativity, embolden her imagery and open her eyes and heart to the beauty of their home on the Philippine island of Negros. Through her family travels she discovers expansive landscapes and skies across Europe and gets inspired by the drama of light and dark in Rembrandt’s paintings contrasted with the fun and playful strokes of Van Gogh. And, living in the Bay Area she sees and captures a unique perspective on globalization, inequality and the impact of technology on our world.

 

Being born into a Chinese family in the Philippines it is inherently clear that art is a hobby, not a career. But throughout her life, no matter where she goes or what she does, she somehow always comes back to art. In elementary school she joined in and won drawing contests making it into the local newspaper. After graduating from Ateneo de Manila University, she studied Interior Design at the Philippine Institute of Interior Design, re-discovering her love for color and art. After moving to the Bay Area, and teaching herself to paint in oil, she slowly but surely settled on art as a career, fulfilling her life-long dream. 

 

Christine now focuses on her art full-time. She is a member of the Society of West-Coast Artists (SWA) and has exhibited works at various SWA shows and at a range of other venues and exhibitions across the Bay Area.