Artist Ruth Crowe’s “The Journal Project” Set to Make Profound Impression on Visitors to Chicago’s Center on Halsted
All are invited to the opening party at Chicago's Center on Halsted on Aug. 4 from 6:30-8:30 p.m., at which Peter Mars, an internationally renowned artist who has been an inspiration for Crowe’s own work, will be her special guest.
Gay Tomboy: "Other kids always asked me if I was a boy or a girl. It made me mad and hurt my feelings but I didn't know why. People like to think it's a "choice" to be gay. But it's not by choice, it's by no other choice.
Let It Be: "My running has continued throughout my entire adult life as a form of sometimes self-punishment and/or sanity saver... Running, along with my journals, saved me. Let it be, Ruth, let it be."
Opening Celebration at 6:30 p.m. on Aug. 4 Will Also Feature Work by Widely Acclaimed Artist and Crowe Collaborator Peter Mars
“The Journal Project” was conceived in Jan. 2022, when Crowe decided it was finally time to go back and read the words in full that she had penned to chronicle her life experiences over the previous 43 years.
“On occasion I would try to re-read these journals without success. It was just too hard to look back to see who I had been or what had happened along the way,” said Crowe. But as she started to read her journals in chronological order, “I wanted to face my past and tackle the albatross I carried with me… It was extremely difficult to come face to face with certain slices of my life, but I plowed through each one searching for answers and for my truth. Hindsight is so much easier after the fact. How we judge ourselves, view our past and who we are through the lens of who we are now.”
Crowe then distilled her words and memories and doodles that populated her journals over four decades to create 30 deeply personal works tied to monumental events that have shaped her life, with the hope they would resonate with people of all kinds.
“We are more alike than different. But all of our experiences and how we react to them are uniquely our own,” said Crowe. “I was gay. Growing up when I did was challenging and made my story much different than the straight accepted norm of the day. In these current times of bigotry reasserting itself in the world, I hope we can all be aware of the issues that ‘others’ face every day. Whether that ‘other’ is a different color, sexuality, gender, and so on and so on.”
“The Journal Project” has evoked enthusiastic and emotional responses across Crowe’s home state of Michigan (she was born and raised in Allendale). The exhibition first opened at the CultureVerse Gallery in Ann Arbor, where Crowe lived from 2008-19, as part of a three-artist show running from Dec. 2, 2022 through Jan. 22, 2023. It then moved across the state to the Saugatuck Center for the Arts for a three-month run. With Crowe now living in Saugatuck’s sister city of Douglas, the phenomenally successful opening reception on Feb. 10 drew a large, appreciative crowd of neighbors and collectors from the surrounding area and from across the U.S. and Canada.
While Crowe earned a degree in Art Education, she initially abandoned any artistic aspirations for more than 30 years to pursue a life in the U.S. Army, followed by the L.A. police force and later as a collegiate softball coach. Having taught herself Photoshop, she then ran her own graphic design business for 11 years before devoting her energy to creating her art full-time.
“I am thrilled that Peter Mars will be at the opening reception for ‘The Journal Project,’ and that two pieces we collaborated on will be there, too,” said Crowe. “His global renown as an artist is well-earned. Even before we personally met, he’d been a wonderful inspiration to my own work, especially his distinctive layering of vintage, iconic images.”
The Center on Halsted is located at 3656 N. Halsted. The Aug. 4 reception is open to the public. All are welcome to immerse themselves in the past few decades of Crowe’s life experiences, both via her visual works and through excerpts from her journals that she personally recorded. All of them are accompanied by a song by past or current recording artists, along with a quote from the likes of Steve Jobs, Oscar Wilde, Oprah Winfrey and Margaret Atwood that complement each piece.
For more information on artists Ruth Crowe and Peter Mars, visit www.ruthcroweartist.com and www.petermarsauthentic.com.
Mike Tischleder
Wally Petersen at WRP Communications
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