Birds of Hope
Allure
The River
The Garden
Social Distance
Everlasting Life
Otherworldly Sirens
The Season
Pandora
Wake
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ART STATEMENT BY J.E. CRUM:
Making my art is a journey of self-discovery. I create self-portraits inspired by fantasy creatures and mythical beings including dragons, mermaids and a range of ancient mythologies. Personal narratives develop when I create art as I explore my beliefs about fate, destiny, and the meaning of dreams. My focus is to engage in the aesthetic of creating art as a form of relaxation, attempting to use the artistic experience to cultivate growth in my creativity and just enjoy the feeling of being lost in the process.
As an artist, I work intuitively to create art. I create playful juxtapositions within the artworks using the method of automatism. I find I am also inspired by music as I always have something playing very loud in my studio space! Experimenting with various types of watercolors on hand-made printmaking paper, I then revisit the works and discover what I see after the pieces are dry. I add more detail to my art with a variety of drawing and painting materials, working intuitively on my works until they are finished.
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J.E. Crum is a fantastical artist who creates vividly abstracted variations of self-portraits inspired by mythologies such as dragons and mermaids – just to name a few. Working intuitively, Crum creates personal narratives related to thoughts about fate, destiny and the meaning of dreams. J.E. also has an exciting career as an elementary art teacher of nearly one thousand children a week in rural locales of central Pennsylvania. Crum believes in the power art possesses to bring happiness to others.