Christy Amschler Collection

FULL FINDING AID AND LIST OF MATERIALS

Read the finding aid for the Christy Amschler Collection processed between 2020-2024.

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Biography

Christy Amschler was born on March 20, 1970 the only child of Jim and Judy Amschler. She began drawing at age 14. Christy continued to pursue drawing, as well as painting and photography professionally. Her education in this field began at the Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI in 1987; then Syracuse University’s six week art history course in France and the Netherlands in 1990;  the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University, Boston, MA in 1992; the Graduate School of Figurative Art at the New York Academy of Art, New York, NY from 1992 to 1993; the Bougie Studio, Minneapolis, MN from 1993 to 1996; and Frank Covino Workshop in 1999. Amschler’s work was shown in galleries across Boston, New York, and Connecticut, and resides in private collections in Connecticut, London, Bermuda, Massachusetts, and Washington, D.C. She was a member of the Women’s Caucus for Art, the American Society of Classical Realism, and the Hudson Valley Art Association. Her studios were in Belmont, MA, St. Louis Park, MN, and eventually Los Angeles, CA.

Amschler described the art she created as about a, “wholeness and sacredness,” inspired by, “a concern for the environment, animals, the speed and direction of technological growth, women’s spirituality, feminism, and nature.” Amschler was deeply invested in alternative forms of healing, women’s spirituality, and astrology. In 2000 she attended the California Institute of Integral Studies, a college in San Francisco dedicated to multiple ways of knowing, spirituality, and service to communities that expands traditional degree programs. It was there that Christy received her Masters in Women’s Spirituality, Religion, and Philosophy.

She then opened her own business in Los Angeles, GoddessStar Astrology and GoddessStar Studios, where she designed jewelry, worked as a Vedic astrologer, and created paintings based on her client’s horoscope charts.

Christy was a feminist lesbian who turned to alternative medicine and homeopathic methods of healing after facing challenges in the healthcare system. In the later years of her life she was diagnosed with uterine cancer. This cancer spread, and eventually led to her death on August 21, 2017.

Christy had a partner named Laura Strong who appears in many photos in this collection. They lived together in St. Louis Park, MN, though it is uncertain how long they were together.