Today we’d like to introduce you to Will Crutchfield
Hi Will, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I had always been interested in art and making things, and I did a lot of simple drawing and craft when I was younger. My aunt, who was the creative in the family, saw potential in me at an early age and encouraged my mom to get me art lessons when I was around 15. Shortly after that, I started working with a local teacher who got me into painting, collage, and working with mixed media and different materials. She showed me a lot of different avenues of making and ways of seeing that were exciting to me, and it was around that time I started taking things more seriously as an artist.
From there, I started studying at SCAD in Savannah, GA, and quickly found a home in the painting department. It was there that I became interested in contemporary painting and fine art and started to refine my personal style and develop my studio practice. I graduated from SCAD with my BFA in the spring of 2023 and moved back to my Hometown of Rockwall, TX, at the end of 2023. Now I have a studio space at the Goldmark Cultural Center in North Dallas where I create artwork full-time, and I will be debuting my new show, “Home Stretch,” there in the Ruth Andres Gallery From June 3rd to 16th, with a Reception happening from 3-5 pm on Saturday, June 8th. You can find the details for this on my Instagram.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not, what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
There have definitely been some ups and downs along the way, but for me, I’ve found that the constant has always been creating. Having that to escape to when things get hard has made the low points feel more manageable.
Thanks – so, what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
Primarily, my work centers around the idea of remembrance. I use a lot of materials that are antique or that have been discarded or forgotten about, recontextualizing them as an exploration of how they impact the space around them. Collage media, found objects and sculptural elements are a mainstay of my work, drawing influence from people like Robert Rauschenberg, Ellsworth Kelly, Blinky Palermo, and Richard Diebenkorn, to name a few.
The body of work I’m doing now, Groundwork, are sculptural works where canvas is stretched over found objects. The painted surface is then carefully sanded away to reveal a relief of the objects underneath. The way they hint at what’s below the surface without giving it all away creates this sense of tension and curiosity that I think is really unique. I’m influenced by a lot of assemblage artists and a lot of sculptural painters, but I’ve not seen anybody make work that’s quite like this before.
Now, I like to think of myself as a sculptor trapped in a painter’s body. Work that breaks the 2D plane and uses materials traditionally used in painting in dynamic, sculptural ways interests me right now and I see myself continuing to do more of that in the future.
We all have a different way of looking at and defining success. How do you define success?
Success to me is just having the resources to create art that fulfills your creative vision and the proper avenues to share your work with the world. For some people that means a sketchbook and an Instagram account, for others, it means a warehouse studio and representation from a blue-chip gallery. It’s all relative.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://willcrutchfieldstudio.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/willcrutchfieldstudio/
