In the Studio with Multimedia Artist Christina Varga

How do you define an artist like Christina Varga by a single medium? You don’t.

Painter, assemblage artist, curator, environmental advocate, and community builder, Varga is one of the Hudson Valley’s most original creative voices. From her vibrant gallery and studio in the Catskills hamlet of Phoenicia, she creates bold, layered works from discarded materials—vintage album covers, paper towels, found objects, and glittering fragments—transforming the overlooked into art that celebrates the sacredness of women, questions consumer culture, and reminds us that beauty can be found almost anywhere.

Her creative vision extends far beyond the studio. As the founder of the Phoenicia Festival of the Arts, Varga has built a thriving celebration of creativity, sustainability, and community, bringing together artists, musicians, filmmakers, and visitors while helping shape Phoenicia’s cultural identity. Her gallery is more than an exhibition space—it’s a hub for conversation, collaboration, and creative exchange.

In this edition of INSIDE+OUT Upstate NY’s “In the Studio” series, we step inside Christina Varga’s eccentric, colorful world to explore the inspirations behind her unconventional materials, her fearless artistic philosophy, her passion for empowering women through art, and why she believes creativity belongs to everyone—not just artists.

INSIDE+OUT: What inspired you to become an artist, and what was your journey?

Christina Varga: I was always an artist, but never thought of it as a career to pursue. Everyone around me always said I should be an artist, and I just thought that was a silly way to try to make a living.  When I moved to New York City, I started working as a production assistant and made my way through that entire industry, working at places like Miramax Films, MTV, Viacom New Media, The New York Times, and none of those places really captured my desire to propel forward and work my way up whatever ladders there were.  I’m much more independent than that and prefer my free agency.  While I was living in NYC and working in publicity, I went to an office supply store on 57th Street to get some stuff.  I wandered into the art supply section, and there, a clerk assured me I did not need this Belgian Linen canvas I was looking at, nor did I need those professional oil paints, as I was not a professional artist and could use more student-level materials. I found that so strange and off-putting that a store clerk would make judgments on my level of skill that I got both the canvas and the paints and started painting in oils that very day. It was so natural and easy, and over the next few months I lined up shows, including one at a friend’s club – NV, owned by Frank Cilione – and sold my first painting for $1200.  That gave me the motivation, and I haven’t stopped since.

What inspires your choice of materials for your artwork?

Christina Varga: Whatever I have. I often work on something using materials that are within reach.  Sometimes I will have put together a box of random things I needed to get off a table and then will work with the materials in the box – whatever is in there – scraps of paper, paint colors, yarn, fabric. I consider that fate has sluiced these materials to me for this particular moment of inspiration, and then use what I have. I have tons of canvases that people have brought me over the years, plywood, lumber cutoffs, all kinds of things I will use as a substrate.  My favorite is pre-painted canvases, though.  People give me prints and paintings and canvases they don’t need.  I have a few hundred canvases from an artist, Scott Cronin, beautiful Dreamtime-inspired works. Over the years, people have brought me hundreds of vintage Playboy magazines and other vintage erotica publications. My friend Michael Hunt gave me my first stack of Playboys, and that’s when I started making VARGA Girls just to have quick and easy art sales of accessibly priced, universally appreciated small works. I try to make what people like to buy, and over the years, it has shaped my body of work. As for materials, whatever people bring me is what I work with and on!

Much of your work is made from materials that were going to be discarded, things like album covers, fans, and even paper towels. What is your process for identifying “life” in these discarded objects?

Christina Varga: It’s a real problem. I can’t help but see art supplies everywhere, and I tend to collect things like a magpie or something.  If it glitters or is opalescent or holographic at all, I go nuts, and then surfaces and frames, and all kinds of stuff just wink at me constantly, and I have to store all this stuff.  Honestly, the life of an assemblage, collage, jetsam, flotsam artist is overwhelming, and if you have kids, then you are inundated with all this colorful, glittery paper and single-use plastic waste.  I always tell people if Vincent Van Gogh had access to these types of materials, he would have used them!

Can you describe the moment an object stops being ‘trash’ for you and begins its life as a canvas?

Christina Varga: Usually, it’s something that has been brought to me.  I’m really notorious for collecting shiny, glittery things from parties or that I see on their way to being tossed, but mostly I accept old magazines and records, and if I’ve mopped up a paint or ink spill with paper towels, you may rest assured I will try to find a way to incorporate it into some piece that I am working on at the time. The transformation happens in the process.  The moment of creation is when the object is transformed, and that is part of what drives me.  To elevate the baseline of existence into an art form.  To always see things as their potential.  It’s not everything; I don’t pick up cigarette butts to make art, but whatever has churned towards me in the course of life is likely to become something.  And with pop imagery, I love to elevate something commercial into something iconic – pop iconography like the Black Moses work, which did in fact incorporate spilt ink and paper towels as a watery background on a sandy, glittery shore. I like to take anything remotely religious, spiritual, or sexual and create a message.

“I’m constantly telling my kids we don’t need more cheap crap from China that’s going to choke a whale in 20 years. And I sequester these materials into artworks that illustrate exactly what we are doing as a society. So many plastic films and bags and toys and bottles. It’s overwhelming.” — Christina Varga

How does your art function as a form of environmental activism, specifically regarding your goal to keep plastic from harming marine life?

Christina Varga: I’m constantly telling my kids we don’t need more cheap crap from China that’s going to choke a whale in 20 years. And I sequester these materials into artworks that illustrate exactly what we are doing as a society. So many plastic films and bags and toys and bottles. It’s overwhelming. So many of my works are lessons in conservation and environmentalism.  And it’s working!  I hear my kids talking about it.  Great shows are being put together, like “Matter Out Of Place” at the Jane Street Art Center, that are putting this issue in people’s faces, and we’re talking about it. All civilized societies want to beautify the environment.  It’s not us pushing out plastics everywhere.  It’s corporations.

You described yourself as a “Madonna-type feminist,” referencing the “sacredness” and “holiness” of women. How do these specific spiritual archetypes manifest in your current pieces?

Christina Varga: Every single work is inspired by the holiness of Woman. I’ve always been in love with the Madonna, the way she represents sacred motherhood and that potential in all women. When I first started painting, I was making Madonnas all the time, and I never really stopped in more than 30 years of making artwork.  It’s funny, I still remember one time I had a dream about the pop singer Madonna, and I woke up and was chewing on it and realized she represented THE Madonna in my psyche. There are so many qualities of women that I am celebrating, and I really felt when I started making the VARGA Girls using vintage porn, I was beatifying – making holy – all these women, showing their true nature with a gold glitter halo and all their nakedness.  I was healing a part of me that was damaged in my life and celebrating sexuality and my own mental rebirth through making these icons.

“When I first started painting, I was making Madonnas all the time, and I never really stopped in more than 30 years of making artwork.  It’s funny, I still remember one time I had a dream about the pop singer Madonna, and I woke up and was chewing on it and realized she represented THE Madonna in my psyche.”—Christina Varga

How does this concept of a ‘Madonna-type feminist’ redefine how we view the female form in contemporary art?

Christina Varga: The female form has ALWAYS been celebrated in art. I actually love artwork being made by women right now. I love the paintings made by Robin Francesca Williams – they are so powerful and elemental. I also love the works of Vanessa German – a black woman whose sculptural works are so moving, fierce, and proud.  And there is an Asian artist who does HUGE self-portraits; she’s plump, and the paintings are so colorful and luscious.  I can’t remember her name, but all of these works being made by these artists celebrate women, their power, their potency. I’m absolutely celebrating women and feel like so many of us are calling for a cease to the destruction and patriarchy and corporate personhood by celebrating that which has been squelched so hard, and that is our self-esteem and value.  That includes women of all shapes and sizes, all races, all cultures.  It’s something being said by so many artists who are also women.

In what ways does your art serve as a prism or conduit for a universal force?

Christina Varga: I feel we are all conduits.  Every single person. That we have inspiration come to us and we move that force through our bodies and out of our hands and mouths and into what it is we create. As an artist, I am taking that energy, that inspiration, that focal point, that thought, and manifesting it in the physical by creating something – whatever is inspired in that moment. There have been many times I have been oh so thankful that two completely unrelated things have made their way into my orbit and become a work of art that expresses so much of what I am feeling in the moment.  I often reflect that I am a little motor keeping a vast field of multiverse in a constantly moving toroidal field that is my aura, and that as I take in the energy and materials and inspiration, I also put out that same material as a creative product. We all do that, take in information, and put out some kind of output.  I look to my artwork, my gardening, my conversations, my creations to embody that which I believe – that we are all conduits and prismatic lenses for this multiversal force, and each one of us has a unique perspective and understanding that we can share. Mine is a little messy and crazy, but I enjoy it.

What do you mean when you say you are “fully embodied” in being yourself?  How do you hope your radical self-expression encourages others to be that in their own lives?

Christina Varga: I am 100% living my authentic life.  Sometimes I think that people suffer from a little too much need for acceptance and are vulnerable to groupthink. They want people to think they are this or that.  They’re looking for acceptance in circles they want to join or are molded by circles they are in. My life has taught me to believe in my own value and worth, accepting my foibles as part of the human experience, standing up mentally if not actually confronting bullies, mean girls, and gossips. I am confident enough in my own skills and abilities and honor my experiences as having galvanized my being into something solid, grounded, activated, and empowered.  I have tried to fit in, and I have discovered I prefer to stand out. I’m here having an authentic, creative life and feel that is the best way to be – to not grind out your life to satisfy other people, but to do and be what is most inspiring to you and be who you are at your best.  Long ago, I started to strive for always being on my highest and best path. That is what I continue to seek to do, and it’s led me here.

You’ve described creativity as an act of being ‘fully embodied’ and accessible in daily life, such as cooking or gardening. How can people who don’t identify as ‘artists’ reclaim that human potential in their routine?

Christina Varga: In every moment, you have an opportunity to choose joy or creativity and elevate your own life.  I mean, even walking outside and appreciating your surroundings and listening to your environment, realizing you have manifested right here and now to be taking in everything around you. I always tell people to just start making or creating something that makes you happy – childlike happy.  Take a clay class or make something, a drawing, a collage, plant something, do something that draws you along and leads you to want to be creative. In the millions of ways there are to be creative, there is always some way to express yourself.  And if you can’t make something, you can always cultivate something.

” I always tell people to just start making or creating something that makes you happy – childlike happy…And if you can’t make something, you can always cultivate something.”— Christina Varga

You mentioned that creativity isn’t limited to traditional art—it can be making dinner or gardening. How do you define what it means for someone to be the most human they can be?

Christina Varga: I feel like if we are doing the things that most bring us joy and anticipation, we are guided to live with purpose and joyfully. Grinding it out for a corporation to have a solid retirement and a booming stock portfolio seems to be a less-than-ideal way to guide your life.  I feel like when we are creative is when we are living our highest potential, but to me, that creativity comes in all forms.  It’s very creative to cook and bake, cultivate a garden, tend to trees and animals, make cheese, harvest medicines, play music, make instruments, write books and scripts, create films and shows, teach children, contemplate math, quantum physics and philosophy, movement and yoga, and so much more in life. I mean, I am listing the things that interest me, but think about architecture, animal husbandry, medicine, and healing; so much of life is a creative enterprise.  I feel like if we were guided by joy and inspiration, we would all find our places in the creative world and relish being there and live fulfilled lives that make the world a better place.

What makes living in the Hudson Valley special for you?

Christina Varga: This is truly the most incredible place in the world. I have traveled so much in my life and have seen so many beautiful places, but every time I come back to the Hudson Valley, I know I am home.  It’s the beautiful mountains and creeks, the Hudson River, the creative community and all the artists that flock here that make me feel so at home. I’m so grateful to have found this place and in every way want to celebrate and make the most of life here in Phoenicia. I love this place more than any other place in the whole world, and I think it is magical, powerful, and healing.

“This is truly the most incredible place in the world. I have traveled so much in my life and have seen so many beautiful places, but every time I come back to the Hudson Valley, I know I am home.”—Christina Varga

You also produce the Phoenicia Festival of the Arts. Say more about this.

Christina Varga: The Phoenicia Festival of the Arts is a project I have always wanted to do, an event to bring people together to be creatively mindful and appreciative of the arts and the artful experience. It celebrates artists and gives a venue to help the community gather around the arts, provide a place for Creative Community, create a Third Space of sorts in which people can have conversation and contemplation of the creative life. Our MISSION is to draw tourism, public awareness, and people to Phoenicia, the Town of Shandaken, and the heart of the Catskills by creating a social sculpture to promote Consciousness, Community, and Creativity through the Arts.  Our VISION is to motivate attendees to personally manifest a better life and planet through the arts and creatively foster a ripple effect of change within their own communities. This annual festival is dedicated to promoting creativity, sustainability, and community engagement. Through art and culture, it strives to inspire positive change and foster a deeper connection with the world around us.  That is our Mission and Vision statement, and I worked very hard on distilling what I wish to bring to my community into words. I stand by them.

The 4th Annual Phoenicia Festival of the Arts takes place from Friday, August 21 to Sunday, August 23, 2026.

The three-day event features independent film screenings, visual art installations, and live performances hosted primarily at the historic Phoenicia Playhouse and throughout the hamlet. A notable highlight this year is the launch of the Phoenicia Film Festival alongside the usual artist exhibitions and community workshops. You can find the full schedule of events and participating venues on the VARGA Gallery & Studio website as the festival dates get closer.

What are the most challenging and the most rewarding aspects of being an artist?

Christina Varga: The challenge is always financial. The reward is living, knowing you are living your most authentic life.  Somehow, I feel this ephemeral event hurtling towards me in which suddenly I have the resources to fully manifest the vision – to create the arts center, to provide the venue year-round for creative expression, to create the platform for others to find and celebrate their own artistry, to present festivals and art openings and events to bring people together in creativity.  I’ve gone through the gauntlet of becoming an artist, and it’s not the easiest life, but it’s where I belong. I look forward to making it accessible and available to everyone, and am constantly working towards and striving to achieve this mission

What is one question you’re constantly asked, or what’s the biggest misconception about your business?

Christina Varga: The thing that people CONSTANTLY say when they have been in my studio is that they are so INSPIRED. And they ask where I find my own inspiration. That is the word that people use the most. I think sometimes people are surprised that I carve out an existence doing what I do because the studio is so obviously alive with creativity. I think the biggest misconception about my business is that I have a team or other people somehow driving it along.  It’s just me convincing other creatives to play along and share their gifts.  At some point, I do hope to have an organization that takes on some of the responsibilities of launching festivals and event planning and everything that goes with public access to the arts, but for now, I am the main organizer and planner.  It’s wonderfully exhausting.

What impact does your business have on your community?

Christina Varga: I hope that it brings tourism and business to my community. Perhaps a little humor. Definitely, I would love to think it inspires some folks to be more creative.  And I am sure it annoys some people. I’m not very quiet. Or shy. Or reticent to share my thoughts on things. I’m tremendously opinionated. But I hope that my business acts as a creative beacon to those who seek a little more life in their lives. Living out loud, as it were. Definitely, it brings some people to Phoenicia who may not have otherwise visited our beautiful hamlet in Shandaken.

What local businesses do you rely on to be successful?

Christina Varga: The Phoenicia Playhouse is my absolute favorite business to partner with. I’m so grateful for their continued support of the festival and now the launch of the Phoenicia Film Festival. As far as a community partner, they are the tops, and I think such a gem in the panoply of wonderful things about Phoenicia.  I’m also grateful to Bettina for letting me curate their space over the years and look forward to more events with them. Brio’s next door to the studio brings so many people to town, and I love the shops in my building – which I hope to acquire to create an arts center and small business incubator – everyone like Melange Salon & Spa, Tenderland Home, Freebird Barber & Goods, TezukaJo, and Twig Studio. This building is a center point of the town, right at the heart of the hamlet, and I am so grateful to all of them. I also love our local Phoenicia Farmers Market and our Wellness Rx, Pharmacy for the Public Good, which focuses on so many healthful alternatives, and of course, our beautiful Phoenicia Public Library.

What is missing in the area that you wish we had?

Christina Varga: A Hardware Store! We had one, but it closed, and when it did, everyone in town realized how convenient it was, if a little expensive. It was recently reactivated after being vacant for several years with an art installation by Community Hinterland – a community of women creatives to which I belong – and I am slated to hold film screenings for the Phoenicia Film Festival launch and install artwork there for the 4th Annual Phoenicia Festival of the Arts, but we could really use a hardware store in town.

What local business should we know about?

Christina Varga: Bettina is a small cafe that serves amazing food. I love the owner, Rebecca Shim.

Who or what inspires you personally?

Christina Varga: Women leading empowered lives. Honesty. Forthrightness. Gentle support and positive encouragement. The absence of cattiness.  Kindness. Phoebe Legere – singer, artist, performer, filmmaker – a real trans media artist – is a major inspiration to me, and I am so grateful to have her in my life. As I am grateful to art life paragon Linda Mary Montano, who has undergone some of the most serious, dedicated art as performance and life undertakings I have ever known. Two women really juicing all there is to get from life and embodying the Art Life that I seek to live. And I love Yayoi Kusama.  She really throws herself into being absolutely true to her vision and life. Trailblazers.

Tell us something about yourself that people would be surprised to know.

Christina Varga: I speak fluent Hungarian, passable French, and a smattering of Italian. I know how to make almost everything from scratch. I’m incredibly intuitive and try not to be too psychic. People are not ready for that yet.

What do you do for fun? What are some of your favorite ways to unwind and unplug when you are not in the studio?

Christina Varga: I love biking through Woodland Valley with my kids, swimming at our favorite creek spot, gardening at home, sailing with Honeypie and our kids on his sailboat Just Because on the Hudson River, and going to art openings and events. Anything creative. Especially if I can do it with my kids.  I love supporting their creative efforts.  Martin Henry does ballet and loves being on stage. Tuli Rose is enthralled with Musical Theater.  Seeing my kids in anything they are part of is majorly entertaining for me.  I’m so glad they are into performance!  And Tuli Rose considers the Phoenicia Playhouse her forum; Martin Henry considers The Orpheum Performing Arts Center in Tannersville his platform.  Both wonderful venues.

If you could have one superpower, what would it be?

Christina Varga: Flying. Just up, levitating, then propelling forward. Maybe teleportation. I’d love to grant wishes, but sometimes people wish for the wrong things…

What is your current state of mind?

Christina Varga: Hopeful, excited, anticipating!  I’m in the throes of curating and assembling the 4th Annual Phoenicia Festival of the Arts variety show and art exhibits and the launch of the Phoenicia Film Festival. It’s TONS of work and basically a giant curatorial project that I wish I had oodles of money to coax all the creatives to be part of. Until then, I invite creatives to participate in this social sculpture to bring the community together. It brings me lots of joy.

“I feel like if we are doing the things that most bring us joy and anticipation, we are guided to live with purpose and joyfully” — Christina Varga

Photos of artwork courtesy of Christina Varga and Little Bit Creates.

Follow/Connect with Christina Varga via Website | Instagram  | Phoenicia Festival of the Arts

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See more of our IN THE STUDIO WITH… Artist Series:

In the Studio with Artist Elizabeth Keithline

In the Studio with Bespoke Ceramicist R.A. Pesce

In the Studio with Experiential Artist Amanda Russo Rubman

In the Studio with Multimedia Artist David McIntyre

In the Studio With Artist Olaf Breuning: Laughter in the Dark

In the Studio with Contemporary Artist Andrew Lyght

In the Studio with Mixed Media Artist Yoko Izu

In the Studio with Abstract Artist Joel Longenecker

In the Studio with Horticulturist and Encaustic Artist Allyson Levy

In the Studio with Multidimensional Artist David Kucera

In the Studio with Contemporary Expressionist Ransome

In the Studio with Trailblazing Artist Ginnie Gardiner

In the Studio with Abstract Painter Donald Elder

In the Studio with Sculptor Iain Machell

In the Studio with Artist + Material Collaborator Ian McMahon

In the Studio with Painter + Gallery Owner Jenn Hicks

In the Studio with Multi-Modal Artist Millicent Young

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This ongoing artist series was produced in collaboration with Richard Hall and Mimi Young, founders of littlebitcreates.

Richard Hall and Mimi Young are the creative forces behind littlebitcreates. They produce a variety of projects, including in-depth artist profiles, event-specific promotional videos, and music videos. Their approach is exciting, innovative, and contemporary. In addition to their client work, Hall and Young collaborate with other creatives to create multidimensional, neo-surreal videos as part of a noncommercial venture. Littlebitcreates emerged from the extensive knowledge Hall and Young gained over 30 years of experience in photo shoots and multimedia art. They exclusively shoot all of their videos on iPhones, appreciating the distinctive aesthetic it produces and the comfort it offers their subjects in front of the camera.

Follow + Connect with littlebitcreates via Website | Vimeo | @littlebitcreates