MAE CRAUDER-DAVIS - THE ARTIST’S STATEMENT

I began as a sketch artist with a #2 pencil on my school notebooks, as many of us did.  As my powers of observation sharpened, I realized that my beloved sketch of a horse had backward knees, to my eternal embarrassment.  A gift of oil paints from my father led me to explore color, and after many years of painting badly, I became a competent realistic oil painter, although I remained too traumatized to paint horses again ever. 
As I began to play with acrylic paints I realized that there was more to art than coloring within the lines of reality.  I could create my own lines, and hence, my own reality. I developed techniques, through a series of happy accidents, to make my own materials for collages and works of mixed media.  As time goes on, the media is getting more and more mixed, and the lines matter less and less.

Reality will take care of itself.  Leave me alone. I am playing.

ABOUT ME

I was born in Indiana, May 28, 1952 and have lived in San Diego since 1984. (Indiana had no ocean)

EDUCATION:
BA in Communications, Purdue University
Mesa College Art Department from 1987 to 2002

ART ORGANIZATIONS:
Life Member Clairemont Art Guild
Member Coronado Art Association
Member University Heights Art Organization
Member San Diego County Art Mart Association

EXHIBITIONS and SHOWS:
St. Marks Religious arts Festival 2007, 2006,
2005(second prize)
“Botanical Gold” at The Sunstone Gallery in Bird Rock, October, 2001
CAG Spring Showcase, Gallery 21
Second prize, 2001 
Clairemont Art Guild Membership Show
First prize 1998, 2000, 2003
Del Mar Fair Student Showcase Best of Show 2002
Mesa College Student Show 1989, 1992, 1999

CURRENT REPRESENTATION:
Sumner and Dene Gallery, Albuquerque, NM