ARTIST STATEMENT
In a world filled with ultra conservatism, racial discrimination, and anti-feminist judgements, I am drawn to our nation’s answers to the 1950’s, the 1960’s, while knowing returning is a not a valid possibility. This year, I studied 1967 – 1972, the psychedelic movement, looking for experiences beyond the everyday, looking for meaning in the world, looking for what is beyond and outside of us, which is within us too. This is called “the journey of the hero” per Joseph Campbell, the journey Alice took chasing a rabbit. It is the journey I was forced to make to handle traumas that happened to me during this exact period. I never did lose the belief that “love is where it’s at,” that equality is part of that struggle to love, and freedom for all is the goal. We also need to correct for the damages which we have committed upon the earth. With breakthroughs in botany, we know plants communicate. They are sentient beings. More cases in the animal kingdom have been showing the same result; all are sentient beings. Some symbols are, eyes – defined as spiritual, conscious, aware, guarded, emotional, hedge apples looking brain-like, and tea pots – altered states.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Theresa Richardson Crubaugh was born and raised in Peoria, IL. Her father died when she was 8, Her sister, age 18, was murdered four years later leaving her with a verbally abusive mother. She moved to Florida to help her with depression and anxiety after a suicide attempt. On a fluke she signed up for an art class. Her first art teacher was an ex-New York artist, who apprenticed under Norman Rockwell. He talked her into going to college. In 1979, she sold her first painting. She graduated with a B.A. in Art from USF, 1981. Her first solo show at USF was, “Greek Mythology: Through the Titans.” On the second day a gentleman offered her $1500 for the entire photography show. Photography continued throughout her life with freelancing, volunteering at a state park, and working at photo labs. Theresa went back to school for a B.A. in Classical Latin and taught Latin with other subjects including art. She moved to Illinois after thirty-five years. Her paintings hung in Bloomington, IL at Behind the Glass Gallery, 2019. In 2023 she became a member of Woman Made Gallery in Chicago.
© Theresa Richardson Crubaugh