Festina Lente:
Woodblock prints by Catherine Crawford
October 17 - November 29, 2008
Armstrong Gallery
Colorful prints with images that are gestural abstractions of landscape and nature by Peoria artist.
Sponsored by Lynn & Kelly Gray, Ron Bacon & Dee Bohlbrink
Cathie Crawford has been a printmaker and art educator for over thirty years. She has concentrated on the woodcut and monotype since completing her Master of Fine Art degree in 1987 from Bradley University.
Her woodblock prints are colorful and alive with texture with images that are gestural abstractions of the landscape. Recent prints celebrate places she has lived or traveled. Some of her prints involve a close up view of an underwater world or recall scuba diving experiences. Other images have an aerial perspective inspired by photographs taken while flying.
Crawford's work has been included in more than two hundred exhibitions, including juried national and international shows. She has won over thirty awards at both the national and regional level. Her prints are included in private and corporate collections including: Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC; Bradley University, Illinois Central College and Methodist Medical Center in Peoria, IL; Trenton State College, Trenton, NJ; Texas Instruments, Dallas, TX; Kemper Group, Long Grove, IL; Bank of Boston, Boston, MA; Teacher's Insurance and Annuity Association, New York, NY; and Safeya Binzagr Museum, Jeddah and HRH Abdullah Saud Mohammed, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Cathie Crawford / Artist’s Statement
My work celebrates the magical moments of my life. Some images deal with a particular feeling or emotion I have toward my immediate environment. Table Talk is an intimate view of my back porch. Festina Lente (make haste slowly), Maassalehma mes cheries (goodbye my dears), Engage la Beauté, Monsieur Blanc n’est pas blanc and Resonant Reflections are close up views of my water gardens. Fenêtre sur les Trois Pucelles is the velux view from my studio window in France.
Deeply enamored with the ever-changing hues of water, sky and land, I use color for its emotional impact. I have always been especially attracted to water, seeking it out for its restorative powers (Le bon vivant). On a symbolic level water represents a powerful life giving force -- a source of replenishment, rejuvenation, renewed energy and hope -- a rebirth, springing or rising into being again. Risorgimento means rebirth. This is not a quiet easy rebirth but a loud volcanic eruption.
Dealing more with the essence of water, sky and land rather than the actual subject, my landscape-derived images have become increasingly more abstract, even non-objective, (Aladdin’s Tale, Sui Generis). Water and landscape forms project symbolic meanings and often allude to the changes between day and night. A weeklong kayaking trip in the Pacific Northwest was the stimulus for Orca. The thrill of seeing about 30 Orcas close to shore at sunset in the San Juan Islands is captured in Whale of a Sunset. A brief encounter with a Bedouin woman in Jordan who had facial tattoos was the impetus for Jamal Al Hickma (the beauty of wisdom). L’entrée began during an extraordinary moment in the Alcazar in Southern Spain.
Some woodcuts involve a close up view of an underwater world. Pool Play is an underwater view of children playing in a pool with an inner tube. In Pursuit of a Damselfish and Healing Waters recall scuba diving experiences.
Other images have an aerial perspective inspired by photographs taken while flying with my private pilot husband. Photographs taken while flying over the deserts of Nevada and Utah inspired Sel Sans L’eau. Flight to Lucaya is about our first flight over the ocean to the town of Lucaya in the Bahamas. A flight over the Grand Canyon was the catalyst for Kaibab. Plane Magic is an aerial view of the San Francisco Bay Area. Images such as Aerial Prism, and Illinois Heartscape are a celebration of the colors and patterns found in aerial views of the Midwest.