Carolyn Crampton

carolyncrampton's picture
Neighborhood: Hunters Point Shipyard
Group Affiliation: Hunters Point Shipyard
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The pandemic caused me to start painting cute stuffed animals in oil at home. I use a traditional style, to create still life or increasingly fantasy worlds often inhabited by animals. The animals are witnesses; provoking reflections on our collections of stuff and on our modern world. Often, my pet rabbits sit for a painting or a drawing.
After a thumbnail sketch, I start directly on the canvas with a brush. I welcome distortions that seep into the work. Works are created in series.
I grew up in Larchmont, New York. After attending SUNY College at New Paltz, I received my BFA from the University of Colorado. I moved to San Francisco with my all-girl punk band and played at the iBeam, Fab Mab, and other legendary clubs. I still play music.
I love to visit museums to learn from the masters directly. I've exhibited at various bay area galleries, in local and national juried competitions, and my work is housed in corporate and private collections. I have taught art, design, and software, both privately, at Expression College, Bay Area Video Coalition, and at San Francisco City College Extension. I live in the Goodman 2 Art Center.
In October 2016, I began drawing and posting political cartoons on social media as “Laugh_About_It_” as a way to lighten the spirits of my friends and myself. The first volume was published in October 2019. My rabbit drawings are included in the books “Rabbit Language or ‘Are you going to eat that?’ “, "Ladybird: My Eight Lives", and “Dumbunny” by Mary Ann Wolf.