Press Enterprise Artist Spotlight: CRABBE FOCUSES ON MIND, BODY, SPIRIT

Press Enterprise Artist Spotlight: CRABBE FOCUSES ON MIND, BODY, SPIRITCRABBE FOCUSES ON MIND, BODY, SPIRIT

BY DANIEL FOSTER AND JILL JONES THE COMMUNITY FOUNDATION Published: 08 May 2012 03:43 PM

Artist Kathy Crabbe has chosen to address issues of the mind, body and spirit in her artwork. She uses an intuitive, spontaneous and process oriented approach to her work in a variety of mediums.

Crabbe studied art in Canada where she shaped many of her artistic themes as she studied the female form and women’s studies. She moved to Laguna Beach California and exhibited at the Sawdust Art Festival for seven years. Her work has continued to evolve and embody more humor and playfulness during those years. Living in Southern California also injected a brighter color palette into her work.

In 2000 she moved to Temecula where she now lives and works while she displays her artwork throughout the Southern California region. Throughout During her time in California she has also expanded her studies in printmaking and other media, taking courses and workshops from well known local artists such as Dixon Fish, Helen Shafer Garcia, Amber George and Leslie A. Brown.

In 2008 she started working on a series entitled “Journey into Intimacy” which consists of mixed-media paintings using charcoal, pastels and acrylics applied to smooth surfaces, using both conventional and unorthodox tools and methods. She has been known to use garden rakes, sponges, house painting brushes, fingers and other body parts as she layers and scrapes the surface.

In the “Journey Into Intimacy” series, patterns and symbols are repeated and serve to evoke deep emotions and reverence for the spirituality of nature. “I depict an inner landscape of the senses. Part dream, part yearning and part sacred symbol, the work stems from a holistic perception of the world. Emotions are spiritualized into divine patterns pre-existing in nature — the circle, a seed pod,” states Crabbe.

“Crabbe’s mixed-media paintings and prints are a journey into the forgotten parts of the self; those places, both emotional and physical, that are rejected, neglected, or under-valued in our corporatized and sanitized culture. These neglected places exude a dark kind of beauty and complexity as they form themselves in her work. This work is a foray into sweetness, light and danger all at once. It is deep intimacy — a deliberate mirror and an intent of reclamation. I look forward to following this series,” said Tangerine Bolen, executive director at Revolution Truth.

Crabbe’s BodyPrint Healing series of printmaking includes etchings and monoprints in which she again uses a variety of techniques and methods this time to explore transformative healing through the work.

“Instead of falling victim to pain and suffering, these feelings can instead be transferred onto paper, objectified, transformed and healed,” Crabbe said.

“Kathy’s artwork caught my eye as soon as she arrived at the Mt. San Jacinto College Art Gallery to submit her work for the show I was curating. I was pleased that she brought with her both an etching and a print, representative of a range of her work. The monochrome color palette was both soothing and inviting, and I was beckoned to look more closely at the images to see what they had to say to me. The pieces, both part of the BodyPrint Healing Series, had a lot to say about the healing and release that can be experienced when making art. I was more than pleased to include “V Etch” and “V 1” in Your Face Here: The Modern Self-Portrait and I look forward to seeing Kathy’s art on display in the future,” said Leslie Paprocki, curator, Your Face Here: The Modern Self-Portrait.

Crabbe exhibits extensively throughout Southern California. She is a member of the Plein Air Artists of Riverside (PAAR) and the Printmakers Network at the Riverside Art Museum (PNET) as well as a member of the Dorland Mountain Arts Colony in Temecula.

Crabbe will have work in several upcoming shows including a one day solo show at the Sun City Library on Sunday, May 27, 2012, Art and Earth: My Art, My World at the Murrieta Public Library, Tuesday, May 1 through Saturday, June 30 with an opening reception on Saturday May 5 from 2 to 4 p.m., and she will have an additional solo exhibit at San Marcos Library from Sunday, May 6 to Tuesday, June 24, 2012.

For more information visit the artist’s website at http://KathrynVCrabbe.com Article Source

Verse to Image Exhibit: the poet has come back

Kathryn V. Crabbe. 2012. The Poet Has Come Back. Drypoint etching and monoprint, 13 x 26 inches My newest hand pulled fine art print is a combination etching and monoprint. It was created for the "Verse to Image Exhibition" at the Riverside Community Arts Association Center in Riverside, California.

This exhibit features members of the Printmakers Network affiliated with the Riverside Art Museum and explores the connections and spaces between literature and the plastic arts with displays of writing that have inspired the artists' works on view.

My print was inspired by Margaret Atwood's poem The Poet Has Come Back and by a quote about rebellion from Chris Hedge's book Death of the Liberal Class.

Atwood's poem talks about the god of poets having two hands, "the dexterous and the sinister" which actually refers to the left and right hands, something of great interest for me due to five years spent painting and drawing exclusively with my non dominant left hand in early 2000. Atwood's lines below were explored in the print I created.

The poet has come back to being a poet after decades of being virtuous instead...Welcome back, my dear. Time to resume our vigil, time to unlock the cellar door.

To understand humanities intuitive, 'primitive' past I looked to the earliest known drawings (and prints) created some 35,000 years ago in the Chauvet Caves of Southern France. (see image to the left) I also took notes and made sketches from Werner Herzog's 2010 documentary film, Cave of Forgotten Dreams for which he was granted the rare privilege of filming inside the caves.

I also investigated the groundbreaking work of archaelogist, Marija Gimbutas who explored Neolithic Goddess culture, mythology, linguistics and folklore in her book The Language of the Goddess. Gimbutas writes:

Hands and feet symbolize the touch of the Goddess; they impart her energy.

The color red is the symbol of life.

Figurines occasionally have enormous hands seemingly imparting divine energy or spells.

Chauvet Cave - handprints

In the Chauvet Caves are walls containing two different kinds of palm prints, one kind was made by pressing the fleshy round part of the palm of a hand onto the wall's surface and the other by spraying the color red around the hand.

In my etching/monoprint I made a full hand print (in black) using my right hand to represent the left brain dominant, logical society of today and another print (in red) using the fleshy base of my left palm to represent the intuitive, right brained world of our Paleolithic ancestors. In between the two hand prints I printed an etching of a root like symbol to connect the two worlds; both the rational, present day society and our intuitive past.

It is important that we, as a culture are presented with a vision of this possibility. We need to acknowledge and face our shadow side, our fears, our left hand and yes, stand vigil at the cellar door so that once again the poet has two hands, the dexterous and the sinister.

This piece also symbolizes how important the role of the artist and our imagination can be, especially in today's society. By making our mark, by critical thinking, skepticism and risk taking I ask each one of you to consider how important art, the imagination and the artist can be in North America today.

We must always learn from and study the example of other peoples throughout the world, but we do have to analyze our own conditions here in the belly of the beast. We, as conscious artists, must combat the torrent of mind-control with a real alternative - murals, songs, dance, poetry that contain different values and have educational content as well as beauty...everything is political.

Miranda Bergman, Mural, Mural on the Wall from Art on the Line, Essays by Artists about the Point Where Their Art & Activism Intersect, Edited by Jack Hirschman

VERSE TO IMAGE EXHIBITION Riverside Community Arts Association Center Riverside, California Exhibition dates: March 22 – April 21 Reception: April 5, 6-9pm (during Riverside Arts Walk)

REaD Exhibition @ Fallbrook Library, California

V1, 6.25 x 10.25 inches, Monoprint, Kathy Crabbe, 2011

REaD Fine Art Print Exhibition at Fallbrook Library

Printmaker, Dixon Fish has organized an exhibition of fine art prints at the Fallbrook Library featuring artists from the North County San Diego Printmakers group and surrounding areas. Artists exhibiting include: Chick Curtis and Adeola Davies-Aiyeloja.

I'll be exhibiting hand pulled prints from my BodyPrint Healing Series. These prints are part of a process of healing I've undertaken through art-making. More work from this series can be viewed here: KathrynVCrabbe.com

Fallbrook Library 124 S. Mission Road Fallbrook, CA 92028 1-760-731-4650 Directions

Exhibition dates: March 8 - April 27, 2012 Reception: March 16, 5-7pm