Check Out Kathryn Crawford’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Kathryn Crawford.

Hi Kathryn, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I was lucky enough to be raised around artists. I had a lot of access to different things to create as a kid. As I grew up, I started getting into drawing and film photography – which led me to receive a scholarship to college, where I got a degree in graphic design. I traveled abroad to Florence, Italy, and studied art at the University of Florence during college. This was a huge pivotal point in my life and my future. My grandmother’s family comes from Italy, and I started to connect with my ancestry from that side. I had also been studying some art history beforehand – and being there really cemented this love I realized I had for it – especially for Baroque and Renaissance Art.

Fast forward some years, and a few random jobs later, I decided to get more serious about one art form – painting. I had been painting here and there throughout my life, but in 2012, I got in a serious and life-threatening accident. It was during that time, where I spent the months that I was wheelchair-bound, that painting became a real therapeutic outlet for me. If you look back on my art from those years, a main theme from that period was honey bees. I had a road rash so bad over most of my legs that the treatment they typically use was only making it worse. I was about to get large amounts of skin grafts until the doctor asked if I would be okay with being covered in honey – which they had never tried but had read about in Revolutionary War diaries. A week later, the healing that occurred was unbelievable. This inspired me so much that it became my main storyline for a long time.

All this being said – my real art career flourished from this point forward. I decided to move into a studio to have a place where I could focus. I continued to work part-time jobs while building a name for myself. Through friends in the art community, my world was opened up to murals. As a person who loves a challenge, I shifted to large-scale painting. I had barely picked up a can of spray paint before my first real mural, but between teaching myself and tips from friends, it quickly became my primary medium. I spent the next few years balancing studio paintings, mural work, and part-time jobs. Asheville has a supportive art community, and despite being a town with many highly talented muralists, there were a lot of opportunities for me to build my mural career. As time passed, I began traveling more for jobs, getting more and more clients, and eventually, I became a full-time mural artist. This was four years ago, and I’m still pinching myself that I’m able to make a living doing art.

Can you talk to us about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned? Looking back, has it been easy or smooth in retrospect?
It has been both, for sure! I paint for a living, which is a dream. I’ve had steady work, and some people recognize my name. Each day and each job is a different experience, and I love that aspect.

It’s easier to spell out the struggles, but they’ve taken a back seat to the positive parts of my career. Mural painting is physically and mentally demanding. I’ve been in some scary situations working high or in challenging weather. I typically work a minimum of 12-hour days every day until the mural is finished. This is my choice, but it is pretty taxing. In almost every job, there is also one day that I am consumed with self-doubt and freak out that I will blow it. But the feeling that follows, of overcoming that self-doubt, is such an empowering feeling – I swear it’s addicting.

Lastly, I’m a female muralist in a career dominated by men. It’s a tale as old as time, but I’ve had to work harder than some of my male colleagues to be recognized and respected. I’ve been dismissed and overlooked more times than you’d like to know. My husband is also a muralist; if we work together, people almost always assume I’m his assistant. And although it’s irritating, I love to prove to people that I’m where I belong and will show up better than you expected.

Thanks for sharing that. So, you could tell us a bit more about your work.
I paint primarily large-scale murals, almost entirely in spray paint. However, I also love to do studio work and show with galleries. My work focuses on abstracted florals. My inspirations come from postmodern design, Art Deco, Art Nouveau, Renaissance, Baroque, Italy, warm places, and palm trees. I have a few “signature” parts of my art—straight lines that are usually in threes, archways, and gold paint.

I’ve been thinking a lot about life as an action – each day is always a different experience, and your perception or reaction can change based on the tiniest factors. I could walk down my street 100 times and each time see something new. I could visit the same city more than once, and it could feel like a different place each time. Every spring, I see a new flower I swear I’ve never seen before. I could paint a part of a mural one day, and if I painted the same part the next day, I would pick some different colors.

My process works the same way—there are parts that I can control, but it also leads me in different directions that I don’t plan for. I haven’t tried, but I bet if I tried to make the same design twice without looking back, it would come out pretty different. Sometimes, my favorite parts of my designs are something subconscious that happened while I was designing.

Do you have any big plans?
At the start of every year, I write down my professional and personal goals. My professional goals always include painting in another country, which I have gotten the opportunity to do twice – in Naples, Italy, in 2022 and in Milan, Italy, this past June 2024. I would love to be hired for more jobs abroad. I have also been dreaming of/manifesting a future career in a creative direction.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.KathrynCrawfordArt.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kathryncrawfordart/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KathrynCrawfordArt/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kathryncrawfordart/

Image Credits
Photo of me painting: Rodrigo Gaya @gayaman_photo www.RodrigoGaya.com