Portrait of the Artist

Marcia Crumley

Escapism

By Noelani Kirschner | May 8, 2017
Autumn Birch Trio, acrylic on canvas, 2016, 36 x 24 inches
Autumn Birch Trio, acrylic on canvas, 2016, 36 x 24 inches

 

Although she works part time as a consultant, Marcia Crumley regularly paints in her studio on Harrison Avenue, located in the artistic neighborhood of SoWA in Boston.


“I spend a lot of time in Maine. My family has a cabin on a lake, and I go there in the summer. I paint in a room that’s got many windows in it and looks out over the lake, and there are trees. To me, the trees all have this distinct personality. There’s something that makes them more individual and forceful. It makes you feel very small. It’s just this infinite power they have, and they’re so graceful.

To me, painting is almost like escapism. It creates another world for you. It’s physically and emotionally how I recharge. It’s like going for a walk in the woods, when you feel so much better afterwards, and refreshed. That’s how I feel when I go into my studio and paint. I’m getting away from the world by doing it, but I’m also painting something that helps you get away from the world. The same sort of feeling you get if you’re reading a really good novel, and you get engrossed and forget about time—that’s a parallel to what I feel like when I’m painting and what I want people to feel like when they’re experiencing my painting.”

 

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