ABOUT HELEN CRAWFORD

I paint moments of inner fiction.

sometimes like this:

A line in the sidewalk stretches to the end of the grass.
A tightrope wire strings me along. If I move my hips this way, I teeter.
If I move my hips that way, I totter. The ground pulses with color.
Sometimes I carry you with my body, out of balance and humming about:

grass
concrete sea
vessel
cradle figure
hush
color field
house
body ground

I begin with stories. A place becomes a protagonist and a scene. With thick brushstrokes, thin washes over time and pencil lines, I play with adjacencies of color, form and line to create paintings of familiar places and situations.

Helen is an artist, registered architect, visiting professor at Georgia Institute of Technology, and mother. She received her fine art and architecture degrees at Parsons School of Design in New York City, and Princeton University. She has provided commentary regarding fine art, architecture and urbanism for NPR, Metropolis Magazine, and The New York Times. In 1994, she was named “30 Artists: 30 and Under” by The New York Times Magazine.

A JACK INTERVIEW WITH HELEN CRAWFORD

What was your first experience with art?

I fell into one of the long, shallow fountains at The Metropolitan Museum of Art at a very young age and have been in deep love ever since. (true story)

What is your favorite medium & why?

Oil paints, acrylic paints and graphite on canvas, primed masonite or heavy cotton paper. A canvas is a flat plane or a void, or both. The ability to enhance or alter that plane in a spatial way or superficial way is compelling.

What style are you most drawn to? Does it ever change & if so, why?

I think I am drawn to anything and everything in the visual world. Last week I spent a good bit of time hanging out with Logan, one of the guards at the High Museum. We spent the time throwing our voices at the new Anish Kapoor piece that the High Museum has recently acquired. It is a large conical, wall sculpture, made of mirrored fractals. When one stands at a certain point, one can hear the whispers of others in the distance. After that I went to look to see if the Philip Guston painting had returned. (not yet) then visited the Tiepolo in the European Collection. I am drawn to what speaks, regardless of an assumed style.

Off the top of my head, some favorite artists are: Alice Neel, Louise Bourgeois, Philip Guston, Joan Mitchell, Cezanne, Carravaggio, Cy Twombly, Velazquez, William Kentridge, Kim Dorland, Dana Schutz, Don Voisine, and more of my friends, of course. My work does not look like any of the works of these artists. I think I am not drawn to a style but to the making of Art itself.

I do tend to paint somewhere between figuration and abstraction, and often between painting and drawing.

Have you always been an artist or is this a career change?

Yes. And I am also an architect, professor and mother. We are many things, aren’t we?

Have you ever taken classes/courses?

Yes. I hold a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Parsons School of Design and a Master of Architecture from Princeton University. I do enjoy sitting in on life drawing sessions when I have the time.

What do you want your art to accomplish or describe?

An experience and a space for the viewer of the work. Often I like to hear what kind of mood, place or position the viewer inhabits when looking at a piece, rather than my own. It is often enlightening to see what someone else sees in a work.

Art programs are being cut all over the nation in schools - what's your opinion on this?

As a professor, I feel learning to think “visually” is critical to anyone’s education. It is here that important problem solving skills evolve. Learning to see with your hands is another form of communication. Art classes and history should be available to all children, and adults too! I have written and continue to write Congress, and The White House regarding the National Endowment of the Arts, and more. Atlanta has wonderful resources outside of the school system. Organizations like Burnaway, Flux Atlanta, Wonderroot and our galleries provide amazing public projects that are family friendly throughout the year. Art Relish is a great website to follow for weekly events. http://artrelish.com

Where is your favorite place to create?

Everywhere, if that makes sense... For me, visual images come from writing, ideas about words, glimpses of shadows, ideas about spaces and the feelings that places evoke. I carry a small notebook everywhere I go. And a camera, although I never paint from photographs, or en plein aire. All the work that I make, including figural works are from my imagining a situation. To me even sounds have a color and a depth. Eventually all this filters into the actual studio, which is next to my house.

Which comes first - the inspiration or the medium?

Just a desire to paint and to give into the work. That comes first, and with that everything else follows. It’s not inspiration, instead it is desire, I think.

How has your work changed over time?

Each painting or the act of painting and making marks with paint informs a future mark on a canvas or paper.

If somebody was standing in front of one of your works, is there anything you'd want to tell them?

I wish they would tell me something first... how wonderful that is when it happens!

Do you have a favorite piece you've done?

Not necessarily, but I do have pieces that teach me important lessons.

Can you draw a perfect circle freehand?

Yes. I am about to teach a bunch of freshmen how to do this very thing. The secret is to begin with a perfect square, and remember your freshman geometry lessons.