About

“Ars Longa, Vitas Brevis”

You know, I always liked that quote.  But you clicked here to find out who the heck this guy, this ‘artist’, is. I can tell you a little bit about myself, my art, and this site.  But first I must confess that I am an amateur artist, almost entirely self-taught.  My life long interest in art has resulted in my attempts to duplicate things I like.  And I have been doing it for a while and the things on this site show exactly where my casual, but consistent dabbling, has led.  I am still learning of course and that’s part of the attraction.  There is always something to learn.

Of course, the realities of daily life in America do distract.  During my college years, I was not studying art in school even though I wanted to.  I did take one drawing class, however.  The most I can remember was the instructor’s tendency to silently approach me from behind and shout “BIG!”  Later, I took 2 more classes watercolor and oil painting, at a couple of Junior Colleges.  End of ‘formal training’.  I’d taken another route, but I decided that regardless of what my ‘career’ was, I’d still do art. Most of my work I had simply given away or otherwise lost track of (a couple of examples are here on this page). Somehow I’ve kept it up, in one form or another, through all the twists and turns my life.

The idea for this site is to be a small ‘open studio’ or very small gallery to post my paintings. A few of which I had made into nice quality Giclée prints. I will be adding stuff as I am able and that’s the plan. Hopefully these are not too expensive and are easy to find frames for. Some of the original paintings are for sale here too. I do this because I think art should be available and tangible if you like it. I don’t think the ‘art world’ is not something I know much about. For me, there’s just this place out there in the internet ether.

 And so, here we are.  With today’s technology and resources, books, and videos about painting, one can learn in many ways for one’s self.  Yes, a lot is possible. Soon other artists that I know will be showing their works here too. We will soon add a section for Digital art. If you watch the brief video on the home page, you can see some samples of the digital art which will soon be available here as prints, and perhaps as downloads as well.  And if you happen to like the artwork shown, and I truly hope that you do, you can purchase it.  It will not ever match your couch or be worth millions, but that’s not what it’s about for either of us, now is it?  Hopefully it will engender some kind of commonality of experience.  Or take your mind’s eye someplace that it’s never been.  Or simply please you in some other intangible way. 

Ken Crawford, November 2023