Sue Crawford

About the Artist

Sue Crawford (Baltimore, MD) was born in Santa Barbara, California and grew up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. She received her BFA in painting from Massachusetts College of Art in 1998. Sue has since lived and worked in Boston, Los Angeles, Portland, Oregon, and Milwaukee. Sue moved to Baltimore in 2007 where she was introduced to the fields of painting restoration and conservation. The processes used in that work have informed her current art practice in technique, momentum and material.

Artist's Statement

My practice is a meditative one. I make systemic, repetitive marks using a visual language discovered through hypnagogic states of sleep and a therapeutically assisted hallucinogenic experience. The linework, both meandering and reticulating at times, acts as a labyrinth for thoughts. After formal considerations of shape, color, and pattern are decided, I make marks for hours on end, often while considering a single subject. The content of such a meditation (or session) is transferred to the lines, building paths to wander along and travel between each new layer of the painting. Each layer is a space for exploration and constant change. As I spend this time, I feel myself melding into each piece; I too become a line. In experiencing myself as a line, I can be anyone in any way, anywhere, and at any time. In the great heap of these possibilities, the line Me might offer precision and structure to the form I am exploring.