Christine Giffen lives and works in Santa Rosa, California, where she is the Fine Arts Department Chair at Santa Rosa High School. She received her BA in Sculpture from the University of California, Santa Cruz, and MFA in Sculpture from the Slade School of Fine Art in London, England.
Giffen often employs the manipulation of scale in her sculptural practice, working in both the miniature and the massive to call attention to objects, locations, and situations which often go unnoticed in everyday life. She utilizes this manipulation of scale to create imaginary realities intended to prompt personal narratives.
The desire to provide the viewer with the foundation for narrative is a strong component of Giffen's work. Believing that humans have a tendency towards nostalgia, her work often sets the stage for such personal associations and memories. She regularly plays on our unavoidable personal associations with the human figure to create potential stories and personal connections. The figure appears frequently in her work, altered in scale or manipulated in order to highlight an emotional element.
The personal narratives that Giffen desires to create are ultimately meant for the viewer to fulfill. Through her use of scale, the altered figure, and her somewhat whimsical sculptures, she provides the spark from which a story unfolds, a narrative begins, or a memory resurfaces.