CMR Group

The amazing Laurel Parnell answered all my dumb questions 🤍

Today I finally felt like I’ve “arrived” because I passed my NY Master’s Social Work Boards. Now, I’m focusing on how I can combine art and social work. 💫This grassy green page was a quick and easy tape transfer to keep record of today’s milestone. I’ll be teaching the technique at my art class at this Saturday. Come by if you want to learn the technique! 💫 I also have a painting up at on view until Nov 18. 💫

Christine Rucker, MSW!! Finally, I’ve completed my master’s degree in clinical social work. It is a pleasure to close this chapter and start a new one as a supervisee in social work in Virginia and a LMSW in New York. Thank you to my family and friends for your support 💕

My visual journaling classes (VJ) have been a special project for me. I have been teaching them for over 3 years and I now have an opportunity to go a little deeper with participants and other creatives.

Usually journaling looks like your words on a page; VJ introduces a mix of your words and visual elements. Sometimes, during class, really personal thoughts can come up.

I am happy to share ~ I am now able to work with anyone that would like to process those thoughts with me, in a therapeutic space.

I am a master-level student counselor at Deep Connections Counseling. It is a psychotherapy clinic in Norfolk, VA, and set up to see virtual and in-person clients. I am taking new clients. For Virginians with insurance, I take Aetna (except Aetna Better Health), Anthem including Medicaid, Cigna, Optima including Medicaid, United Healthcare (see link in bio for my profile). Other clients will need to pay private-pay rates.

For now, I am accepting individual clients. In the summer I will start accepting clients for couples counseling.

For a 15 minute consultation, call me at +1-757-866-3296

See my bio link to schedule an appointment or view my profiles.

2 notebooks made with pages and red euro library buckram case covers. The second book is a reporter book with laser printed lines. The end pages are paste papers printed and buffered by yours truely.

September 2009. (4/4) Inkjet photos, acrylic, gouache, markers, colored pencils, pencils and pens.

I saw a documentary of an artist in front a huge canvas. They paused and applied a red line in the middle and stepped back speculating, and then satisfied. The final painting didn't even end up with the red line in it. In my head, the artist was accepting this is the way and the path to follow through with.

My favorite art pieces have a moment in the piece with a mark or brush stroke who's beauty hits me like a knock to my funny bone. It'd be cool to be able to paint something like that.

Sometimes, I'm working in my journal doing all sorts of nonsense (as you should know by now, a lot of fingerprinting). Then there's a moment where you make a mark and you're like "gooaaalll" like it's the super bowl. That's what drawing those red and purple scratchy lines felt like.

It gets kind of addicting. I used to be really hard on myself and interrogate, "why aren't you making more superbowls, Christine?"

Nowadays, I say Silence You Inner Critic You! That pressure won't be the reason I'm not making any "superbowls" in my visual journal or artwork... It'll be because of the fingerprinting. 😋

September 2007. Silver gelatin and inkjet photos, sequins, vinyl, press type, foil, nail polish, acrylic, markers, pens and pencils.

The entries in these journals would begin with something I remembered, probably from my day. I would pick it apart for visual elements and look for connections. Example? I wrote down my password and out came a magical mushroom cloud, the hope that comes with eating an apple a day.

Stay healthy/safe out there folks!

September 2007. Silver gelatin and inkjet photos, sequins, vinyl, press type, foil, acrylic, markers, pens and pencils.

Scribbles! I would sit very still, slow my breathing and empty my thoughts to channel all my scribble energy between my fingers, with my wrist stiff, and drain all the words into energetic lines. Like I was getting a reading from a heart rate monitor.

Other times, I would sit very still, looking up from my page, so the teacher would think they had my attention 100%.

I was a graduating senior, about to enter the "real world" and getting ready to move to NYC to study fine art... makes sense I blew off AP Physics to fingerpaint in class, no?

October & December 2006. Photographs, press type, acrylic, color pencils, tracing paper, markers, pen and pencil on watercolor Moleskine and Bombay journal from B&N.

My stories and sketchbooks became more encoded and abstracted as I started to really play with storytelling. This was likely a result of 2 things: (1) I lost a sense of privacy after I exhibited my journal, and (2) Listening to too much PJ Harvey. I thought a lot about this excerpt from her Wiki:

"She rejects the notion that her song lyrics are autobiographical, telling The Times in 1998: 'the tortured artist myth is rampant. People paint me as some kind of black witchcraft-practising devil from hell, that I have to be twisted and dark to do what I am doing. It's a load of rubbish'. What is more, she later told Spin: 'some critics have taken my writing so literally to the point that they'll listen to 'Down by the Water' and believe I have actually given birth to a child and drowned her.'"

I loved painting stories around the photographs of my friends, random people and places. It was fun to take different elements and put them together.

Portfolio of art work from 2020 to the present.

Portfolio of art work from 2010 to 2019.