Katie Crown
Artist Statement
A La Mode
All my paintings and sculptures grow out of drawings. Even as a child I was constantly
drawing. The motivation for my work is usually humor. We all need humor to get
through the stresses of life. My family is prone to depression. My drawings could make
my mother smile. That taught me art is powerful.
I sought for many years to find a way to give my small sketchbook drawings more heft.
My newest series does that by amplifying the drawings into big metal wall hangings.
The figures become solid characters you can experience eye-to-eye. Most pieces in
this series stem from anxiety in social situations. Drawing cartoons of people with
similar discomfort helps me cope. It is fun, economical therapy, and I hope the pieces
convey the spirit of fun.
Alexander Calder’s small wire sculptures infatuated and inspired me. My metal pieces
are quarter-inch-thick aluminum cut by a computer-controlled saw to enlargements of
my pen-and-ink drawings, retaining their hand-drawn character. I add punch with color
and pattern. The pieces hang about an inch off the wall, so shadows become part of
the impact. I want the final effect to resemble a neon sign you might see along a
boulevard.
I grew up in Southern California but lived away much of my life until returning several
years ago. I celebrated my return with big beach-scene paintings. These oil paintings
add a twist to California’s heritage of figurative painting by putting California figures
where they belong: outdoors in the sun. They frame the energy and color of beachgoer
bodies in geometrical landscapes of sand, waves and horizon.
I call the series Beach Noir. People engage in fun activities and strike funny poses, but
few in the crowd seem aware of each other. Alienation lives at the beach. This is still
Raymond Chandler’s town.
I love cartooning, and Southern California beaches are like a stage of characters on
parade, which makes them an irresistible subject. Along with humor, I love pattern and
use it in my paintings. By playing off one pattern against another I aim for dissolution of
matter, something familiar from oriental painting and drawing.
My depictions of audiences also present figures in group situations. I have represented
audiences in paintings, collages and ceramic busts. Some faces are from film noir
movies of the 1940s and ’50s. My audiences accentuate the feelings of alienation in a
crowd. They prod you to think about groups: about how we are each alone and unique
even when sharing a common experience, and about individual elements in a pattern.
