Solo Art Exhibition: Christopher Hynes “Dreaming Hildegard”

Dreaming Hildegard
Solo Exhibition by Christopher Hynes

Exhibition Dates:
September 15th, 2025 – Exhibition Opening Day
September 27th, 2025 – Exhibition Closes

Artist Statement:
“There is a little bit of something in everything and that is what I like to explore.”

My work is all about storytelling–my Assemblages, Sculptures, Collages, and Pigmented Plasters all bear a narrative element. Through observing, reinterpreting, repurposing, and reimagining objects, materials and artifacts, I create visual poems that are sometimes political and serious, sometimes whimsical and humorous, but always with purpose and intent. When I’m in my studio everything I need is there and the universe is perfect.

Hildegard of Bingen saw the world as a whole – nearly nine  centuries before spaceflight allowed us to see the Earth as a  vulnerable orb against the darkness of space. I have long had a  personal connection with this exceptional mystic. Having raised  ten children- I was the tenth- my mother returned to her vocation  as a Benedictine nun after my father passed away. She told me  about Hildegard, her work and her visions in the early eighties  before she became known and celebrated in bibliotherapy  research. So when Alex [collaborative composer] shared his ideas of working with Hildegard of  Bingen’s concepts and music for our second collaboration, I was immediately drawn in. The number 3 occurs with regularity in  Hildegard’s writings, and Alex made this central in his new  composition. I then decided to base my palette on the three  primary colors and their opposites. The nine paintings divided in  three subsets of three sizes – 24 x 24, 48 x 48, and 24 x 48 inches  determined the size of the paintings. I worked exclusively in pigmented plaster, which dates back to  the Babylonians. It is a material that Hildegard would have been  familiar with and that I discovered while working the trades in  the early 2000s. I apply the plaster with a variety of knives ranging  from large mud knives to very small palette knives typically used  for oil Paint on a surface of wood Panels or from plywood found  on job sites. Each tool allows me to create different textures and  details, working with this ancient medium in a modern context. I  chose the orbs to reflect Hildegard’s visionary depictions and the  larger expansive world she perceived. The paintings represent the  vibrant energy she found within her contemplative state in  monastic life. I must say creating them takes me into a deep  meditative state. The first three paintings I created, measuring 24″ x 24″, have the  primary colors red, blue, and yellow, on a field of their complementary opposites, green, orange, and purple.

At the heart of each piece is an orb within a square, symbolically  enclosed by a gilt cross. These simple yet powerful forms are  inspired by Hildegard’s Benedictine tradition, evoking spiritual  balance, the intersection of the earthly and the divine, and the  cyclical nature of spiritual growth. The gold reflects spiritual awareness. Hildegard explained that  her visions were not observed by the senses but within her soul,  opened to experience. She called it “the reflection of the living light” and said it was “not spatial, but far, far brighter than a  cloud which carries the sun. The three larger square paintings, 48″ x 48”, have an orb in a  secondary color on a field of blended primary and secondary  colors. These paintings symbolize Hildegard’s visions of the great  unknown cosmos and her mystical experiences of astral travel.  The orbs serve as metaphors for Hildegard’s visions and meditations on the divine order of the cosmos, which she documented in  her manuscripts. These orbs also evoke the mystical nature of her  “Music of the Spheres,” an ancient and medieval philosophical  idea where the movements of celestial bodies are not random but  instead follow a harmonious and ordered system, stirring with  life. As she writes in her final text, The Book of Divine Works: “the  waters flow as if alive, and the sun lives within its own light, and  when the moon has waned it is rekindled by the light of the sun  and thereby lives anew, and the stars shine forth in their own light  as though alive.”‘ The final three paintings are horizontal works, measuring 24×48,  inspired by the trio of musicians’ free improvisations that run  throughout the jazz composition. The three primary colors in  these pieces mirror the fluid and spontaneous nature of improvisation, where distinct yet interconnected elements come together  to create a cohesive whole. The paintings have a visual reference  to Physica, Hildegard’s treatises on medicinal plants, recording  one of the first compendiums of European plants that offered  insight into their herbal properties and their use as remedies.

Artist Biography:
Christopher Hynes is the youngest of 10 children and grew up in Washington, D.C. around artists, writers, and politicos. As a young man he was a studio assistant for several Washington artists. He also worked in an archival frame shop but, mostly, he played in rock and roll bands. In 1988 he turned to the visual arts full time. He is mostly self-taught and has had numerous group and one-man shows in Texas, New York, D.C., and other cities. His work is in many private collections across the United States. He’s lived in Austin since 1984.