Sumner Crenshaw
Ethereal portraits examining self-perception, anxiety, confidence and inspiration. Sumner Crenshaw creates about work inspiring becoming your best self. We love how she incorporates negative space and figure ground relationships into her work.
Sumner Crewnshaw is an American surrealist and figurative painter. She fuels her narratives with line and movement; taking inspiration from Salvator Dali to Shel Silverstein.
She received her bachelor of fine arts in 2006 and her masters of fine arts in 2009; working professionally as an artist since 2005. Her work has shown across the US and is in national and international collections. She has been represented by Ugallery and ZaPow Gallery in North Carolina. She currently lived and works in Frederick, MD.
She explains her work further:
Every episode of anxiety can become a character, a story I can portray in paint. A creature with multiple dueling limbs represents the hydra in my own head. A confident figure strutting across the canvas in the girl I hope to be one day. A dash of red, a curving line, a rushing brushstroke: all are visual metaphors that help me to find a voice that is stronger than the monster that has muzzled me for so long. Anxiety gives rise to inspiration and empowerment. This tension has been one of the guiding forces in my creative endeavors, and it has given me a valuable way to connect with viewers. We all can relate to the struggle to understand ourselves, and transform ourselves, there is a monster, and a hero, in each of us
Originally published 8/30/2019
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