As she hopes out of the Uber, she barely peaks at 5 feet as she frowns at the rain. Her earth tone skirts waves as the sidewalk glistened from the New York skies. She’s familiar with the Chelsea neighborhood; this is her domain. Cristine Sanchez, is a senior at Fashion Institute of Technology, which is only blocks away from the galleries in Chelsea. “The way that I go to art gallery’s and art museums, are the way I go to the grocery store, I’m always there,” Cristine says.
Her eyes scan the ceramic donuts uniformly spread across the wall adjacent from her. Lyson Wier Gallery is currently exhibiting the work of Jae Yong Kim. His pop art lines the walls of the gallery as Christine snaps photos of his interpretation of the legendary Campbell’s soup for her SnapChat followers.
Many would see his art as just soup but Cristine see’s more. “These are so dope,” she says as she snaps her favorite donut and posts it to her social media. Don’t take her as your every day over indulgent social media user, her post come with purpose, and inspiration for the things that make her world work.
Her eye for art is unique as she sees even the most creative things as beauty within itself. “You can see whatever you want in a piece, and no one can tell you it isn’t that,” she says as she seems to reach a point of clarity. “Art is always open to interpretation,” she says as she snaps a photo of glowing sign, instantly receiving feedback from her followers.
She speaks about her plans after college with a calmness and confidence that is not often heard in a new grad’s voice, “travel, lost of travel, get an apartment, and get out and start my own business, or my own anything right now.” She continues as she lays her iPhone on the coffee table of the gallery as she moves through her thoughts, “For me to understand what I want to do, travel is very necessary.” “To keep myself alive through so many aspects like art; You have to be in new spaces and meeting new people,” she says.
“Just being a New Yorker is a huge identity for me, like when I go to another country I don’t say I’m American, I’m a New Yorker and people know what that mean.” Her pride exuberates from her, as a smile spreads across her face. “There’s so many character’s here in New York and I love being one of those.”
Unlike many FIT hopefuls, Christine’s aspirations do not follow the journey of a fashion designer, but instead that of a spectator and an active contributor. “You don’t need to work or be a part of a magazine to be a part of fashion, you can buy your on .com, make a twitter, and post your photos to Instagram, create a following, and bam your apart of fashion,” she elaborates, “Social media is whatever you want to be.””Social media made it an accessible way for people to be like “I’m here, I’m Basel,”” referring to the art event that takes over Miami annually, Art Basel.
“Think of all Chelsea’s Gallery’s, but all of the galleries of the world, New York, Milan, Paris, all in the Jacob Javits center; it’s so awesome,” she shares. When I was there I was like, If I’m looking at art don’t rush me, because this is what I flew to Miami for,” unlike the thousands that went there for the social media hype. Hype doesn’t move her, she goes with her emotion, and she goes with her instinct.
Her Instagram serves a photo library of the things she finds dope, and the places that make her who she is. This Queen’s native is not your average girl, she is an ever-evolving woman who see’s New York as her throne, and the world as her kingdom, and honestly who would want to exist outside of her Instagram feed.