We recently caught up with Crystal in order to find out what themes are behind her new body of work and what techniques are used when shes capturing emotion in her sculptures.

A lot of your work deals with human emotion and in a recent interview you stated that your work has become more and more introspective over the years. What mental processes do you go through in order to come up with the emotions you want to portray in a piece?

My work has actually been very introspective and personal in the past and has taken a different route lately. I have been working on a body of work that is dealing with emotion in relation to environment. I have been building sculptures with figures in full backgrounds and themes of natural cycles and man-made changes in nature.

I don’t know if I have a mental process I go through in order to portray emotion. I try not to think about how the figures in my work feel, I try to feel the emotions I want them to exude and show them in the body, face and hands.

When you have an emotion you want to portray in a piece, how do you then avoid letting your current mood and feeling effect the end result as you work on the piece over time?

I try to work really fast! If I have a new idea for a piece I try to start and finish sculpting within a week. I find that I lose ideas or an idea can be diluted even if I make detailed sketches. I like to work with vigor and potency and they both escape me if I wait to long.

In your landscape pieces you said that you have taken inspiration from, amongst other things, nature and memory. Is there any place in particular that has inspired your work recently? is this reflected in the piece?

I use imagery from nature to make statements about the environment and to give my figures a context. I spent my childhood living in the forest surrounded by tall trees, mountains, rocks, and streams. Nature is a reflective, quiet place for me, a space where my mind can wander and be contemplative. Nature is also a precious place, it is finite and ephemeral, I like to work with this idea as an over-arching theme.

You seem to get a lot of support from other artists, including John Casey who has photographed a number of your works. If you could collaborate with anyone either living or dead who would it be?

The Oakland art scene is really strong right now and filled with lots of new galleries and artists. There is a momentum and everyone is really involved. I have a lot of support from other artists in the area. We are all working towards the same goals and it is really motivating to work as a group or a movement.

I would love to collaborate with so many different artists for so many different reasons. I have found that in the past, when collaborating with other artists, that I learn so much about working with people and my own ideas. But if I had to come up with a short list of dream collaborators, I would have to include Kevin Taylor, Tiffany Bozic, Egon Schiele, Akio Takamori, Gian Lorenzo Bernini, and Jay Shafer from Tumbleweed Tiny Homes.

What’s the name of the exhibition you have coming up?

I am in several group shows that are coming up, although I am most excited about a solo exhibition at Rowan Morrison Gallery in Oakland this December.  The name of the show is ‘March Into The Sea’ and deals with ideas about the death of nature.

December 2010 – www.rowanmorrison.com

I have a drawing at POVevolving opening August 7th www.povevolving.com

What’s the idea or theme behind your new body of work that you have prepared for the exhibition?

My intention is to explore the human experience of emotion, and its relationship with the environment. I want to study the tenuous, symbiotic balance between human necessities and the health of our natural habitat of forests, oceans, mountains, and deserts. Everyday we strengthen the disconnect between what we use in our lives, and the destructive effects it has on where we live, the air we breathe and the water we drink. We have made a departure from nature and the balance that should exist has been broken. In my work I want to reveal the ephemeral quality of human life and show our dependence on an increasingly delicate ecosystem.

Which of your new pieces are you most proud of in terms of how honestly it has reflected the emotion you have wanted to portray?

“The Long Wait” is a piece I am pretty happy with right now. The idea behind the work shows that in order for new life there must be death. This piece shows a cycle of disintegration and growth at the same time.

When working on that piece what were your working conditions? What environment do you have to be in, in order to capture the raw emotion in your sculptures?

I need quiet time in order to think and read about current events. I listen to National Public Radio for inspiration. I have ongoing ideas and stories that build and need regular working time in the studio to stay constant.

To see more of Crystal’s work and to keep up to date with her exhibition schedule please vist her website: http://www.crystalmorey.com/

Come Join us this Saturday evening for the re-grand opening of the Compound GAllery and the Swee(t)art Drawing Gallery. The entire space has been in a state of transformation for the last month and now has finally come together for this event!

I will be showing new ink drawings in the Swee(t) art Gallery along with other sculptors who draw! Lucien Shapiro, Bruk Dunbar, and Carrissa Bowman will also be showing new works.

Obi Kaufmann had some very thoughtful questions for me about how I work, and where my imagery comes from.

From Obi’s site:

Crystal Morey, the Record of the Maker

Crystal Morey’s strong yet delicate sculpture has only gotten more strong and more delicate as the years of gone on. As a fan of her work, I am thrilled to include her in the show this month at the Swee(t)Art Drawing Gallery. The show is calledProtoform and from her startlingly consitant and strong portfolio, the gallery will showcase her drawing, a mode of her work that she doesn’t regularly show. If you are a fan ofCrystal Morey’s Website than you do know her drawn work and if not, please visit us on the night of the reception, April 17th, 2010. I visited her new studio in the Compound’s new space on 65th in North Oakland and I asked her a couple of questions.

Her statement for the drawing show:

“In making the drawings for ‘Protoform’ I worked in an additive way. I collaged the drawings together by cutting out pieces and adding them for surface and texture.”

Obi: How did you come about to sculpture? Is it something you have always done, or were you a draw-er at first?

Crystal: I have been drawing for as long as I can remember. I grew up in the rural mountains of Northern California where I spent lots of time roaming the forests and building forts. In the evenings I would draw with my father, making elaborate stories about the animals and indigenous people that lived in the woods. This love for adventure and imagination fueled my desire to draw and has led to many other artistic passions.

I didn’t start sculpting until much later in life. Drawing is something that doesn’t require special equipment, only a surface and a tool to make marks. The way I work is no different, I have a surface and a tool to build with, the separation is in the process and the outcome. I think learning to draw first has only made my sculpture more informed, immediate, and inventive. Drawing and sculpting are both equally important to me. I have found that sculpting is more rewarding for me in its hands on visceral quality, it leaves a record of the maker that I haven’t been able to achieve through drawing.

Obi: I have noticed that your relationship to landscape, as a theme in your work is changing over the years. Am I right about this? Your figures exist in an environment now. Can you describe how that process came about and how you chose the imagery for the environment?

Crystal: I think my work has become less introspective in the past few years. For a long time I was very interested in emotion and focusing on the gesture, over exaggeration and animation in the body. I am still working with these ideas although in recent works I am looking at natural environments in relation to human emotion. I have always seen my figures in landscapes, although before, I only drew them. I am now making full environments, full narratives and landscapes.
The imagery for my landscapes are taken from objects, pictures, films, books, nature, and memory. I then reconstruct these images to make an environment that conveys the ideas and mood I want to show.

Obi: Sometimes I think your figures look like you. Is that right? Where do these people come from?

Crystal: Many people see the work as self-portrait, other people see the work first, and then on meeting me, can’t see the connection. For me, the figures don’t represent specific people, they represent feelings, situations, and states of being, and they are simply a vehicle to show an idea. I relate to humans and I am interested in both the relationships we have with each other and in nature.

In my mind the perfect studio would be half way between a cabin and an elaborate fort or tree-house. It would be small in size and made with all kinds of precious, found materials like windows, doors, and woods of all shapes and sizes. This is what I would like to make, a magical, whimsical, shanty-cabin where I can make my work. I would also like to use the structure as a project space to show friends work or maybe have a small art or craft sales!

We shall see what I come up with! While I have been thinking, I have also been looking at Tumbleweeds Tiny Homes, you must take a look!

Opening: Saturday, September 12 

Afternoon Tea: Sunday, September 20, 3-6pm

Closing Reception: Friday, October 2, 7-10

I will be documenting the collaborative pieces in progress and posting them here. Enjoy!

Day One: July, 13 2009

I attached the hands and finished the arms last night. The whole sculpture needs to be refined, although the major building is complete.

I will post more pictures as we make them!

I am in a three person show in September at the Compound Gallery and am working on some new pieces! I will be showing with two long time friends, and school mates, Derek Weisberg and Ben Belknap. I am really looking forward to it!