Artist Statement

My paintings and works on paper reflect my fascination with the metaphysics of reality, memory, consciousness, and meaning. Across different bodies of work, I use both recognizable imagery and abstract forms to explore ways of representing experiences that resist description.

In some work, the child—usually depicted at play—represents emerging consciousness, while images of plants and animals suggest other ways of being in the world. Other paintings, both older and more recent, depict abstract forms and shapes that seem to emerge from or dissolve into ethereal grounds. Although the imagery has changed, the underlying questions remain: how might a painting evoke something that is felt or remembered rather than seen?

The paintings are often tactile but illusory, sometimes sophisticated and at other times unapologetically clumsy. They are intended to be a little odd—elusive, even—with shades of beauty balanced by a pervasive strangeness. I construct them intuitively through creative cycles of strategy, improvisation, and reflection. Each painting is an attempt to discover something through the act of making: a unique artifact of my creative will.

Biography

Jared Nathan Crane (b. 1987) is a visual artist based in Richmond, Virginia. His paintings and works on paper explore questions surrounding consciousness, memory, perception, and the metaphysical nature of reality.

Crane received a BFA in Painting & Printmaking with a minor in Art History from VCUarts in 2012 and an MFA in Painting from CUNY Hunter College in 2015. He taught in the Art Foundations department at VCUarts for seven years, teaching two-dimensional design and introductory drawing, and has taught undergraduate painting and photography. He currently teaches visual art at the middle-school level in Virginia.

Education

MFA, Painting
CUNY Hunter College, 2015

BFA, Painting & Printmaking, minor in Art History
Virginia Commonwealth University, 2012