[Today’s featured artwork for Day 76 of the 365 Days Project is by Jan Crooker.]
Creating a delicious world…
#76 – Form, color, light and texture. Creatives in different mediums perceive the world from a variety of perspectives, offering a sumptuous banquet of experiences for the Artist Mind.
During a road trip with two of my artist friends who were painters, we chuckled when we realized, an hour into the trip, that none of us had thought to turn on the radio. “That’s an artist for you!” we exclaimed. As we drove through the countryside, my painter friends were admiring the sky’s particular shade of blue that day, discussing how they could reproduce that exquisite color once they returned to their studios while I, on the other hand, was focused on the forms and shadows on the mountain range in the distance. While I can appreciate a beautiful blue sky, I don’t see color the way they do. As a sculptor, I prefer to express the emotionality of my work through form, texture and muted hues.
Jan Crooker is a painter. If you were driving down the road with her, you can tell by her paintings what would attract her attention: color, light, and a bright, sunny day. “The expressiveness of color has always been the driving force in my work,” said the artist.
“My interest in color use pushed me to leave ceramics and become a painter,” she explained. “As a painter, I realized that my love of color really was an interest in the interaction of color and light. This has pushed me to seek out the bright moment, and if it is a rainy day, I will make the bright moment for myself with artificial light or paint by a window.” Her work is all about how color bounces and reacts between objects.
“I see color as symbolic and have come to realize that I only want to paint in bright light,” said Crooker. But her reason for using vivid colors and bright light has a deeper meaning. “On an artistic level, it’s because colors are more intense in a highly lit environment, but the reason is more personal than that. I returned to painting after my son and his wife were stationed on the border of Kuwait and Iraq during the invasion of Iraq. I used my return to painting as a means to express my personal mix of emotions over my loved ones being in harm’s way. After they returned, I decided to continue to paint, and I see my bright light as a symbol of the joy of life.”
For Jan Crooker, light is life. And what a delicious, colorful world in which to live!
Jan Crooker’s artwork can be viewed at: Jan Crooker
Description of the images included in this post:
Dream Cake
Jan Crooker, Pennsylvania, USA
Acrylic painting
Star Magnolia
Jan Crooker, Pennsylvania, USA
Acrylic painting
The 365 Days Project
In 2012, Serena Kovalosky committed to writing an article a day for 365 days as an exploration into the lives of artists and the value of creative thinking in our society.
Experience the full evolution of the project! Click below to read the entire collection of articles.
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