crow woods publishing

Living Artists

Sample Works

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Maureen Bardusk - Sea View, 2002

"A meditation on the constantly and quickly changing sea, a mesmerizing experience viewed from my studio window in Newfoundland. Shaping daily life for gernerarions, the collapse of the cod industry has forever changed the dynamics of this powerful force."

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Geoffrey Bent - Patriotism, 2001

"The pattern here implies unanimity. All the flags and signs enhance the connection between this country and the greatest expression of its lifestyle: the automobile. But in the street lies some of the collateral damage of that lifestyle, the contrast tempering the enthusiasm with a broader perspective."

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Trine Bumiller - Pyre, 2002

"This past summer was marked by wildfire and drought. The combined images explore connections between cause and effect."

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Julie Comnick - Method of Luring, 2002

"What commonplace devices do you use, unconvenally, to summon what we have lost?"

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Antonia Contro - L'Odor del Bosc, 2002

"This book presents studies done during my fellowship. Each page features two sets of entries -- Polaroid photographs and a graphite line drawing of a single plant specimen. Employing a plant as the subject of intense observation, the studies focus on comparisons between art made by the camera and that made by the hand. The book contains a page for each day of the fellowship."

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Barbara Cooper - Surge, 2002

"I always begin with nature. I am drawn to how forms respond to stresses they withstand and the obstacles they confront. Starting with observations of specific phenomena, I abstract the parallels I find in processes as diverse as the surge of lava, the creep of a glacier, the flow of water, and the growth of a tree."

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Chris Cosnowski - Madame, 2003

"Opera is considered one of the highest forms of expression and certainly one of the most haughty. This painting is a reference to Pucini's famous opera, Madame Butterfly. The use of toys in the image blurs the line between high and low culture. The highly decorative sensibility of the image, however, creates a beauty similar to that of the opera. The image pokes fun at this highest form of art while aspiring to its loftiness."

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Sean Culver - Landscape with Spinocerebellar Degeneration, 2002

"This work is essentially about my maternal grandfather who dies of Parkinson's disease. He hand-built his own home. He formed it outwardly from a boxcar he had hauled from his work as a railroad maintenance worker. The finished house sat on top of a steep hill in a clearing of timber near Galesburg, Illinois. This work represents the mind as inseparable from home and as the cradle of manufactured things and cultivated environments. Its individual environments represent the relationship between constructed things and the deterioration of both the mind and its resulting creation."

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Sandra Dawson - The House of Twigs, 2001

"I thought of the title for this piece while camping with family and friends. We found a house entirely built from twigs. I was struck by the fragile relationship between nature and man, man and woman. However fragile, this is the foundation of stability in all life forms."

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Brian Dettmar - The History of Mankind, 2003

"This piece is an attempt to re-investigate the way history can be told. When excavating the book, I try to recontexturalize the book's content without adding too much interference of my own ideas on content or composition."

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Katherine Grossfeld - Sparkle, 2002

"In our culture, the glamour of the wedding is often emphasized over the reality of marriage. Wearing a beautiful gown and being the focus of admiration continues to be a dream in generation after generation of girls. Although the dress is modernized, the idea isn't."

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Susan Hall - Gift, 2003

"My oil paintings are done on Stonehenge printmaking paper. Before I begin painting, I prime the paper with either acrylic gel medium or gesso. Because the gel medium is thick, it can create a textural surface, especially when I apply it with my hands rather than a brush. After adding multiple layers of paint to the paper, I typically remove paint in certain areas by using chemical strippers or a sander. The result effect can connote the passage of time."

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Mary Henderson - Tomorrowland, 2003

"The subject of [my] paintings is family photographs. The work is concerned both with individual memory and with archetypal experiences of American family. The paintings focus on the small or peripheral pieces of information, ... that often trigger the strongest memory."

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Nikkole Huss - Phenomena Perceived II, 2003

"Handwritten or threaded lines filling a surface are innately imperfect. Imperfections allow us to connect with others and recognize common patterns."

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Kathleen King - Late Arrival, 2003

"Producing obsessive and hypnotic surface is my way to engage the viewer in an ongoing visual dialogue with my artwork. The dark Icarus wing-like form is shown hovering over a sea-like surface. The image depicts a moment of perfection before his fall."

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Roland Kulla - Cermak II from the Nuts and Bolts series, 2002

"Nuts and Bolts are two common and mundane elements. Something we take for granted. And yet these most ordinary items coupled with human ingenuity and skill can be transformed into amazing structures.

Cermak II is the bridge near Chinatown over the South Branch of the Chicago River at Cermak Road."

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Renee McGinnis - Open Prayer, 2002

"Our hands are used in ritual. The position and gesture of our hands can communicate an abundance of information."

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Nancy Mladenoff - Spiders, Fungi, Etc., 2003

"The focus of my work has been to explore the natural world in greater depth. My work continues to revolve around transient things that exist on a smaller scale, in particular, fungi and insects. I am fascinated by our love-hate relationship with these small oddities that are rarely even noticed."

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Eric Semelroth - Muslim Madonna, 2002

"This portrait was inspired by the events of September 11. I aimed to fuse Christian and Muslim together in a single, nonviolent image. I recalled the ubiquitous blue robe of the Virgin Mary by coloring Muslim Madonna's veil blue."

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Yvette Kaiser Smith - Misconception, 2002

"This piece speaks to our relationship with the group that shapes us, to expectations of us based on assumptions, preconceptions, stereotypes and preset standards. Front on, it organizes color like a painting. On approach, you experience movement, soft containment and the carving of space. The back of the resin-painted bowls drip messily in ugly presentation on the work's front."

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Bruno Surdo - Flora of the Subway, 2000

"My paintings are allegories of modern life. Although the techniques I use are learned from the old Masters, my subjects are contemporary people grappling with the problems of daily living. The characters in these scenes live in separate worlds of self-involvement. They walk through crowded streets in isolation from one another. Some loudly call out for attention while others absorb themselves in their own private worlds."

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Charlie Thorne - Phone Booth (in a lipstick tube), 2004

"It started with a gallery on the West Coast calling for entries to a 'petite show'. There was a 12" maximum but I felt I wanted to go more petite than that. I asked myself "What is the biggest thing I can put in the smallest thing I can think of?" I had the answer immediately -- the Sears Tower in a lipstick tube. I use techniques of paper modeling well known in Europe. The discerning viewer will notice the empty whiskey bottle tossed on top of the booth. The 'glass' is the cellophane from a pack of cigarettes."

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COPYRIGHT NOTICE: All rights in each work of art represented on this page and throughout this site are retained by the individual artists. No image may be reproduced, downloaded, or electronically manipulated without the expressed written permission from the artists.