LOCAL ARTIST OF THE WEEK: Tina Christophillis

After one glance around her chaotic, colorful painting studio, it came as no surprise when Tina Christophillis revealed that she used to be a dancer.

With swirling figure studies sketched on homemade paper tacked on the walls, silhouettes moving through abstract streetscapes on large canvases and even drafts of a soaring multihued birds in every corner, movement is everywhere in Christophillis's work and world. With a technique of layering oil paint and screen-printing, Christophillis expresses the real energy and emotion behind movement in an abstract way, primarily through vivid color and spontaneous mark making. Her works are simultaneously calculated and natural and range from 6-inch canvases to nearly 6-foot canvases.

Growing up, Christophillis was constantly involved in the arts, be it drawing, playing piano, dancing or writing. After studying at the Alvin Ailey School of Dance in New York City, she went to South Carolina Governor School for high school and focused solely on dance. Contracting mono eventually took the spotlight off of her dance training, so Christophillis came to the College of Charleston to study arts management. Though helping artists as a career seemed like a perfect fit, one of her drawing professors convinced her to double major in studio art with an admonition that stuck with Christophillis. "You're an artist. That's what you are," he told her.

Now Christophillis has studio space at Redux Contemporary Art Center and works professionally as a freelance painter. Other than quality training at College of Charleston and her innate creativity, Christophillis credits her success to the decision to treat painting like the job it is for her, by setting firm hours like any other job and continuing to work during inspiration dry spells.

"If you're an artist and you do it full time you kind of need that kind of obsession and that passion," Christophillis said. "I think that I would have eventually found some form of a creative outlet whether it was painting or dance."

CONTACT: wingwoman.org; magpiestudio@gmail.com.

RESIDENCE: Charleston, 6 years.

BIRTH DATE AND PLACE: March 25, Greenville, S.C.

EDUCATION: Bachelor of Arts in studio art and arts management, College of Charleston, 2008.

CAREER: Professional free lance artist, Redux Studios.

PRICE RANGE: $50-$4,000.

CURRENTLY READING: "Letters to a Young Poet" by Rainer Maria Rilke.