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"Shirley Crow: Images for a New World," an exhibit sponsored by the MSC Visual Arts Committee, is on display in the J. Wayne Stark Galleries through Oct. 26.

Stark Galleries showcase artist Shirley Crow

By: Jill Beathard

Posted: 10/9/08

The Memorial Student Center Complex Visual Arts Committee is housing the work of artist Shirley Crow through Oct. 26 in the J. Wayne Stark Galleries. "Images for a New World" dramatizes the formerly unimaginable changes and possibilities, exciting and foreboding, in our world, Crow said.

The VAC's former advisor used to live in New Mexico and was acquainted with Crow through the Santa Fe art scene, said senior English major Jaimie Potter, VAC chairman. "We were intrigued by her process and point of view."

Crow spoke to students Sept. 17 at a reception in the galleries, describing her personal life and background, her career as an artist and her style and creative process. Crow said she grew up in a small Midwest town. After her father left her and her mother, who was mentally ill, Crow's grandmother raised her.

"My grandmother was - and still is - what keeps me going on," Crow said.

Crow dealt with the stress of her family life by lying under a tree and looking at the world around her. Her interest in "the mystery of the universe" influences her work.

"Everything she paints about looks at things from a new point of view," said junior management information systems major Long Dao. "It's all about the nature of the world around us."

Crow got married the day after she graduated from the University of Missouri, where she studied art. Crow pursued art as a hobby, but focused on taking care of her family. Crow said one day she came home from church, stood in her kitchen and felt overwhelmed by sadness. She decided that to be happy, she had to take her art more seriously.

"I tell students, you have to do something that's natural for you," she said.

Crow accepted a fellowship with the Delaware State Arts Council. Soon after, she suffered back pain that hindered her activities. She stopped painting and felt depressed. Her husband retired early and the couple moved to Santa Fe. Crow's pain lessened, and she began to paint landscapes of Santa Fe, where she said even the dirt is beautiful.

"Bad things are a gift in an odd sort of way," Crow said. "You become more aware of life, more appreciative."

In her art, Crow became more interested in the world rather than her personal situation. We live in a much different world than the one she grew up in, Crow said, a world of almost unimaginable possibilities.

"I try to express that drama in my work," Crow said. "The change in the world and how that change is speeding up."

Every painting has a human figure in it somewhere, Potter said. Crow said the figures are a humorous element for her, but that the figures also represent humans trying to understand the universe and find their way. She loves art history and traditional styles. She said that she wants her work to mirror what's going on in the world.

She said she never works on something unless she feels excited about it, and then she paints on autopilot. She looks through her sketchpad of doodles until something catches her eye that she wants to paint. She keeps her ideas vague.

"You may have one idea, but the painting has a different idea," Crow said. "So you go with it."

Crow said that she has trained herself to stop when the painting stops flowing.

"You don't control it," she said. "You're like a puppet. I think this is common for many artists … I think even in other activities, you're better off if you just follow your intuitions."

Dao said his favorite piece was "The Beginning and the End," a painting of two red orbs breaking off from one.

"It reminded me of mitosis," Dao said. "The focal point of the painting is empty space, which makes you think of the creation of the new cells and the old cell no longer existing."

It is free to view the exhibit. The VAC will exhibit the sculptures of artist Kristy Deetz beginning Oct. 29.