Adele Crawford
Oakland, California
Oakland, California
Bio: Adele Crawford began marbleizing paper and creating book structures years ago with Anna Wolf in Berkeley CA. Intrigued, she took private bookbinding instruction with Eleanor Ramsey. Along the way, she took classes from some of the finest book artists: Hedi Kyle, Scott McCarney, Keith Smith, Alisa Golden, and Howard Munson. This path led her to graduate school to continue the study of artists’ books, at California College of the Arts with Nance O’Banion. Crawford has shown her work throughout the country and was honored with a residency at the de Young Museum in San Francisco. A number of her artists’ books are held in special-collection libraries in the United States.
Statement: My materials come from estate sales. I am attracted to worthless, cast-off, or obsolete tomes, such as encyclopedias and dictionaries. I think of them as books or volumes with all the words or information from our world condensed into one. Language is forever progressing, so these books become dated and in some cases useless. I act as a reconstructive caretaker, with my practice focusing on re-imagining the neglected and forgotten, I manipulate and weave these discards into new imaginary evolutions.
Often the transformative process incorporates hand building, hand stitching, beading, and folding. The work materializes from these methodical, repetitive techniques, which are meditative and contemplative in nature.
While traveling in Southeast Asia, I marveled at the religious offerings being prepared daily. The creation and careful placement of the offering is an act of devotion that must be repeated frequently owing to the artifact’s impermanent nature. I think of my practice as having a sense of reverence and giving. Not that different from what my grandmother did years ago during her quilting bees. I feel a sense of responsibility and respect as I rework the ephemeral, for what it was, the use it served, the people to whom it was useful. I am offering a gift of presence to the universe.
Statement: My materials come from estate sales. I am attracted to worthless, cast-off, or obsolete tomes, such as encyclopedias and dictionaries. I think of them as books or volumes with all the words or information from our world condensed into one. Language is forever progressing, so these books become dated and in some cases useless. I act as a reconstructive caretaker, with my practice focusing on re-imagining the neglected and forgotten, I manipulate and weave these discards into new imaginary evolutions.
Often the transformative process incorporates hand building, hand stitching, beading, and folding. The work materializes from these methodical, repetitive techniques, which are meditative and contemplative in nature.
While traveling in Southeast Asia, I marveled at the religious offerings being prepared daily. The creation and careful placement of the offering is an act of devotion that must be repeated frequently owing to the artifact’s impermanent nature. I think of my practice as having a sense of reverence and giving. Not that different from what my grandmother did years ago during her quilting bees. I feel a sense of responsibility and respect as I rework the ephemeral, for what it was, the use it served, the people to whom it was useful. I am offering a gift of presence to the universe.