Crystal Bowers

I have been interested in art since I was given my first set of crayons. I was always, and still am to this day, drawing little things here and there. I started with cartoon characters because that's what I was most exposed to, but as I grew older I shifted into refining my craft and drawing the things that I had in front of me.  As I grew as a person and artist I have experimented with different techniques and media.  I went from crayons, to graphite, to ink, to paint, to mixed media.  I started painting and tried various media here as well.  I am currently exploring not only new avenues in two-dimensional work but also three-dimensional work.  

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My creative goals are directed towards exploring emotion through various forms of art.  My biggest inspiration has always been my grandmother, as she always pushed me to become a better artist.  Since her passing in 2016, my work has taken a shift in style, and the depth of emotion resulting from her passing was such that I was drowning in it.  I could not seem to find my direction.  I am diving into those emotions and expressing them through my work, and this is a fairly large shift from my previous works.  Most of my early work was based on classically-learned techniques while now I am expanding my scope of expression in more abstract and nontraditional formats.  

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Recently I have discovered a link between my adulation for outer space and the emotional loss of my grandmother.  I have been inadvertently weaving the vastness of space through all of my works.  I surmise the vastness of space represents the emptiness I feel.  The works by Scott Listfield are an inspiration for the development of my astronaut character.  I view the astronaut as an extension of myself in the vast lonely void of space.  To create the stars in the astronaut pieces I used action painting, famously used by Jackson Pollock.  The random yet deliberate splattering of paint helped to create depth and dimension within the piece itself.  Rescently, Vija Celmins has been an inspiration for creating more complex and accurate representations of outer space.  

While I have been exploring the feeling of loss through my works, I have also been driven by my love for graphic art.  The backgrounds in Scott Listfield’s works are graphicly inspiring to me and I have put my own touch on these idea.  Listfield incorporates two main focal points that show in my own work, graphic and symbolistic.  

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My work is not only of a graphic and emotion style.  Illustration and symbolism have also been important parts of my creative process.  The clean style and strong lines used in illustrative works are alluring.  The drama and emotional dynamic that line can show is captivating.  The use of symbolism in my work has allowed for the expression of opinion on various topics including the destruction of our society through technology for better or worse.   

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My creative process is very systematic in nature.  I tend to have a sketch of what I want to accomplish and then move to the developmental stage.  I tend to work in layers with all aspects of creative works.  Depending on the medium used, a final coat of varnish is used to seal and protect the pieces themselves.