Sense of place — and the awareness of sensing — has been a major thread throughout Hengst’s work, which ranges from community oriented public art projects across several countries, to intimate paintings created in her studio in Santa Fe.
Site-specific public pieces, most involving clay, include three bus stop shelters in Santa Fe, a large collaborative sculpture with volcano for a plaza in Ecuador, two Haiku paths, and the four-year traveling international installation “birds in the park”.
Hengst’s paintings layer multiple materials and methods including printmaking, drawing, encaustic, and text. They have been exhibited in solo shows in galleries and museums nationally and internationally.
After college, Christy Hengst set off westward in a station wagon with a cabinet full of gessoed panels, a cigar box of oil sticks, and a bed in the back. Visiting people and painting all along the way, she eventually landed in Santa Fe, NM. There she met her future husband and creative partner, German blacksmith Helmut Hillenkamp, with whom she has since collaborated on many public and private projects, including raising two kids.
