About Harrison

Baltimore City
Harrison Crawford visualizes the abstract fantastical world of dieties and divinities and solidifies them on the canvas for his audience.Visually he is well known for his juxtaposition of the saccharine and satanic, personifying the invisible forces that guide human nature  In the same way, he works with ideas, pulling possibilities from a place of fantasy and employing an almost magical ability to create space for those ideas to be discussed and made practical. Seeking to be more than just the… more

Art on the Go with H. L. Crawford

-Process-based workshops and interactive projects for the students and faculty as an opportunity to develop practices for expressing or sharing their breakthroughs toward deeper human understanding. The purpose shifts from the end result being an example of implemented skill to more of a chance to have technical ability help make a full spectrum of thinking visible, in many mediums. Inspired by pedagogy like Reggio Emilia and Montessori, where learning a personal fluency of effective language is more broadly important than simply producing the perfect product,  my goal is to continue to cultivate channels of communication between the individual and their infinite capacity to create and comprehend.

-"Forming Our Fears"-
    We worked together to explore the fear that can be found in the unclear or unknown parts of the imagination. We exercised how to make these aspects a little less scary by bringing definition and form to these thoughts through the act of creating art and discussion.
    In many cases, we discuss concepts like limiting beliefs and theories like “social reproduction”, where 9 out of 10 times a child will achieve success within a scale of examples from their environment. Doing this while immersed in the creative process allows a better clarity of the contentions while connecting it with the practice at hand, forming a relationship. As the task progresses, so too can the participant with the subject that they’re working through, making it less ethereal and more defined and manageable. As the renderings near completion, we talk about how our imaginations have not only helped us form clear ideas of these limits and fears, but also given us a ritual that we can use to strengthen our control over such things governing our decisions.
    Finally, we work on rendering a dream or fantasy. Each participant worked on their own but as a group. We talked about places, creatures, life goals, careers, family, and superpowers openly and excitedly. We worked to challenge the reach of each other's dreams and make every page its own universe. We helped each person get from where they were to where they wanted by just manifesting the next steps with critical thinking and the implementation of imagination. As a group, we discussed how this isn’t a unique or special gift, but a method of thinking that could be refined, a strength that exercise and practice can achieve, as we had done with this activity.
    Children that started by saying they’ll never dream, saying they only have fears like death and shortcomings, ended up spending the most time and energy creating places bigger than they’ve ever known. That’s what I want to nurture and nourish, that ability to imagine entire worlds of solutions from nothing. The minds that, with just a spark, can ignite volcanoes. This workshop, although started for early education, has been quickly becoming an exciting and memorable way to learn more about how one’s depth of darkness can be a mirror of their capacity for light. For many, it’s also helped with believing that spectacular and wonderful things from this light can be achieved with practice.
  • teaching action shot #9
    teaching action shot #9
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    teaching action shot #8
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    teaching action shot #7
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    teaching action shot #6
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    teaching action shot #5
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    teaching action shot #4
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    teaching action shot #3
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    teaching action shot #2
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    teaching action shot #1

Public Art and Art in Public

Art is more than the implementation of controlling media to communicate thinking and experience, it is the conversation that happens as this language is received and responded to by those touched by the work itself. Public art and "live painting" help me to develop these dialogues with a broad spectrum of champions from many fields and lifestyles. Regularly I get to work with individuals  I used to revere as heroes in places I thought I'd never visit to help to inspire others to become iconic themselves. Pulling from a humanity pool of some of the most developed creatives, innovative thinkers, genuine leaders, and beautiful people with the undercurrent of understanding authentic experience in our conversations gives me something hearty, something tangible and nourishing to give to my art and my interactions with others.
  • R. House - 01
    R. House - 01
    r.housebaltimore.com
  • live painting 01
    live painting 01
    I often get to make art in many unexpected places so charged up with creative energy that I can almost paint with it.
  • live painting 02
    live painting 02
  • Live Painting 03
    Live Painting 03
    In environments like this, the act of creating art stops being such an individual process of the artist speaking as the viewer listens and begins becoming a conversation between all parties.
  • live painting 04
    live painting 04
    This mural was done at Burning Man
  • live painting 05
    live painting 05
  • live painting 06
    live painting 06
  • live painting 07
    live painting 07
  • live painting 08
    live painting 08
  • un
    un
    The arts have brought me to so many amazing places. From world summits to global art gatherings, I’ve been fortunate enough to be continually inspired and challenged by new heights of human energy.

The Serenity Prayer

I've been developing this series as an opportunity to have an active role in my own betterment and beautification. This work is inspired by many spiritual rituals like the Tibetan monks' sand mandalas to more deeply understand the mantra art is being made for to the Christian monks' act of illuminated transcripts to help them and the reader see the light of the lessons being read. These concepts combined with a process introduced to me through "step work" during my time in a 12 step program as an adolescent. This exercise of accountability and action helped me begin breaking the prayer into 4 compositions that I can use to critically and honestly incorporate self-assessment and my process of progress into my practice. The goal is to show how the implementation of imagination and honesty can become part of the momentum one needs to bridge the gap between themselves and the grandiose that their heart can reach for. Practice makes progress.
  • 3 0f 4 - The Seraphim of Sycophants: The Courage to Change the Things I Can
    3 0f 4 - The Seraphim of Sycophants: The Courage to Change the Things I Can
  • The Seraphim of Sycophants: Writing
    The Seraphim of Sycophants: Writing
  • 2 of 4 - A Ceremoniously Contrite Balter: To Accept the Things I Cannot Change
    2 of 4 - A Ceremoniously Contrite Balter: To Accept the Things I Cannot Change
  • A Ceremoniously Contrite Balter: Writing
    A Ceremoniously Contrite Balter: Writing
  • index 1 of 4
    index 1 of 4
    These pages are an example of how I’ve started to show what the work is expressing and why. These indexes are how I’ve been building the bridges of process. Over time I’ll have these explanations for all of the work I have posted.
  • index 2 of 4
    index 2 of 4
  • index 3 of 4
    index 3 of 4
  • index 4 of 4
    index 4 of 4
  • 1 of 4 - Crux: Grant Me the Serenity
    1 of 4 - Crux: Grant Me the Serenity
  • Crux: Writing
    Crux: Writing

The Four Noble Truths

This series will be a way for me to contnue the practices and rituals for authentic self  expression I’ve learned with the serenity prayer series I’ve been working on. More than just finding a clear understanding of where I’ve been, what I’ve done, and where I’m going; these compositions will be renderings of why it matters to get to these places, how I’m getting there, and finding the strength to do so.
  • Sweet Sunyata of the Jorogumo
    Sweet Sunyata of the Jorogumo
    This is personally, the beginning of my work with "The 4 Noble Truths" of Buddhism and technically, a view of my process transitioning from being self taught to entering schooling. I was fortunate to be able to galvanize my zeal for identifying the egotistical pangs of myself and my career with the beginning of taking in fundamentals that will help me become more timeless with my imagery and implementation. The skills gave me a bright light of safety to explore with while the prospect of a deeper emotional clarity from such a journey gave me drive to learn more skills. Sweet Śūnyatā of the Jorōgumo: The First Noble Truth - 04-17 - 2x4' on board.
  • Sweet Sunyata of the Jorogumo: Writing
    Sweet Sunyata of the Jorogumo: Writing
  • jorogumo index
    jorogumo index
  • jorogumo index
    jorogumo index

Drawing

This is a collection of my drawings, separate from the main narrative of my "Serenity Prayer" project. This kind of work does tend to come naturally to me but beginning my training at The Schuler have definitely opened up my form language with the medium quite a bit. I hope to use the robust details and eccentric themes of this aspect of my work in more residential and hospitality applications in the future.
  • Decomposers
    Decomposers
    11x14" ink on watercolor paper - What was just undefined swirls and blobs in earlier compositions is finally something defined, something I can define and use as a great tool. These hyenas, vultures, beetles, ants, millipedes, and snails all turn the dead and decomposing facets of myself into energy, into the soil I can grow from. The point of the examining and scanning isn't just to identify and suppress but to identify, examine, and be educated. Being able to activate these aspects of my personal ecosystem help me to grow through and with hard times instead of simply trying to pile on more experiences atop the "bad" or "yucky" ones.
  • But Everyone Knew Her as Nancy
    But Everyone Knew Her as Nancy
    11x14" watercolor on watercolor paper Featuring: peacock skull hyena jawbone child gorilla shoulder coffee based beadwork and leaf pattern I was truly about due for some work for the sake of it. This piece, as well as an ear and heart full of sound council, helped me to realize that I have to remember to focus on my passion...my need to manifest my experiences into a trail of aesthetic bread crumbs and a deloping rapport with human-ness tinged feels. I'm remembering that when I'm in the right vibe, when I'm fully in it and doing it because my relationship with it is flourishing, then I feel it in my whole body. My hands will sweat and my fingertips will corse with electricity. My lungs fill with tornadoes and my heart pumps lava. I can't forget that I have magic like this inside of me. I always need to remember to keep a space for the hurricanes I can manifest. I can't forget that juju like that will absolutely find it's way out.
  • The Poison of Righteousness
    The Poison of Righteousness
    11x17" ink on drafting paper 07-2017
  • Cuddle Monster
    Cuddle Monster
    11x14" ink and watercolor on watercolor paper - 05/2017
  • Combat Medics as Clerics
    Combat Medics as Clerics
    11x17" ink on paper-11/2014
  • Yummy
    Yummy
    16x20" ink and watercolor on watercolor paper- 02/2017 - The "fabulous" is backward so it reads correctly in reflections. I wanted to draw a positive representation of my "princess mode". Those times where I need things done the way that I want and everything is fine as long as it's exactly perfect. But this piece doesn't want to shy away from it, it wants to be empowered, even for a moment, by its concrete standards of excellence.
  • Starcrossed
    Starcrossed
    11x14 - ink and watercolor and ink on watercolor paper - 02/2016 - The Arabic says "last night I saw you in a dream, now I have no patience to stay awake." The Sanskrit is the mantra for the green Tara, represented with the blue lotus on the right
  • Courting Candied Cannibals
    Courting Candied Cannibals
    11x14" ink on watercolor paper - 02/2015 This is a positive rendering of a succubus, often referenced as a consumer of dreams. With this in mind I combined a variety of dream eating imagery with her to empower the character as a totem of sorts. She is as much a representation of my fear of wasting creative energy as much as she is an angel to help me utilize that inspiration properly. I made her as an attempt to begin wrangling up idle thoughts and lost dreams, as to help me recycle such juju. The baku, or dream eating spirit, is made of roses, each color with their own meaning from the Victorian language of flowers. Bakus are often used to consume nightmares, like the dream catchers, but the baku can be overused and begin consuming the dreams of the individual, as well. This necessary restraint is to illustrate how I struggle with either spending too much time trying to learn from and edit what's happened or looking far into the future and fretting over if I'm reaching for my capacity for greatness properly. Both ends of the spectrum tend to be egotistical energy sinks, but in understanding the ends I can work toward achieving a sort of balance in the middle. purple: enchantment burgundy: unconscious beauty orange: fascination pink: grace white: heart unacquainted with love
  • A Brumous Ballet
    A Brumous Ballet
    11x17 ink and watercolor on paper- 10/2014 - This is a rendering of a 4 tailed Japanese ghost dressed as an African warrior goddess of sudden change and hurricanes named Oya. I had started this piece as a goodbye, and it ended up becoming me having to say farewell to a web of expectations and connotations I had allowed to work its way into so much of my me, as well. I thought I was saying this to someone, and it ended up being a culmination of so many instances of me trying to say this to myself. I'm fortunate to have learned so much from how I render the human condition, but I don't need to do another from this part of my stomach again for a while.

Painting

This is a collection of my paintings from the past few years in order from most recent to oldest. Like with my other work, everything is rendered for a reason, every character and item in place for a purpose of progress. Each of these, as well as many others, have been like journal entries or art therapy worksheets more than simply a picture of a thing. Most of these were made and developed while live painting. I thought the deeply personal nature of the works would make myself and the participants uncomfortable, but quite the contrary. The viewer and I would often times be connected in finding a moment where a facet of the human experience isn’t so isolated, that we can actually feel connected because of it, and there are many others that can feel in the same colors.
  • An Emancipated Breath
    An Emancipated Breath
    24x36" oil on canvas - 04/2017
  • An Emancipated Breath: Writing
    An Emancipated Breath: Writing
  • Just For Today
    Just For Today
    3x4' - acrylic on canvas - 09/2016 -This painting, along with the accompanying writing, is confronting, or more so conversing with, the great dragon so many chase. It's been learning that it's a terrifying and terrific level of drive that has simply gotten sick. With nourishment, it can be pulled from, it can be something to build with. It can be power for and powered by the whole range of human-ness...or just gobble it all up into nothingness...also a thing.
  • Just For today: Writing
    Just For today: Writing
  • Oedipus Ordnance
    Oedipus Ordnance
    12-9-15 I’ve followed the singing of bent silver bells along so many stepping stones made of smoke that now I can’t seem to find my footing to take a step back. I can find many ways upward and away but few, if any toward… toward. Echoing in the chambers of my chest I hear the bones of fae cracking in the jaws of cackling hyenas and the roar of knocked over candles setting ablaze the curtains of the ballroom. I’m thankful my imagination loves the heat of the inferno, finding such pleasure in passion, but I do hope the smell of smoke doesn’t stick with the upholstery
  • Beezlebub's Bakery
    Beezlebub's Bakery
    18x36" acrylic on canvas 05/2016
  • Emotional Noogie
    Emotional Noogie
    18x36' - acrylic on canvas - 07/2015
  • #selfie
    #selfie
    24x36" - acrylic on canvas - 05/2015 -4 armed, potato powered, art bot with the Buddhist concept of "Sunyata" on his forehead and lyrics from Ibeya's "River". This space dragon has been teaching me that I'm 'allowed' to grow however seems best, that I can manifest whatever life I'd like, and that I don't need permission to dream and/or become a bigger or more grandiose fairytale of an entity.
  • My Sullied Diana
    My Sullied Diana
    36 x 48" acrylic on canvas - 09/2014
  • Parabola
    Parabola
    4x5" - acrylic and uv paint on board - 03/2014

Atelier Time

The Schuler School of Fine Arts, established in 1959, is where I chose to finally begin receiving some education of the fundamentals last year.  Not only lessons like 5 value scales, anatomy, and composition to bolster my technical ability; but skills I could immediately apply to my life as well, such as how to objectively identify mistakes to efficiently work toward their corrections. I’m learning how to intake art like a recipie or blueprint. I’m learning how to fight my own process less and apply more deliberate action to my own innovations in my life and work. I’m learning how to teach that to others more clearly and more broadly. I’m excited to learn more of my capacity to work toward timeless expressions. I’m elated to continue to teach getting more from your presence in your experience instead of trying to fit into it.

A Bit of Branding

Here I have some of the work I've been doing for the branding of a New York coffee company. www.flowerpower.coffee
  • Morning Cup
    Morning Cup
    11x14" ink on paper. This is part of a branding project where I'm using decorative arts with the mission statement of the client's company to create a "polished yet bohemian" feel to the products. Having the "Mucha-like" nouveau mix with an almost Baroque architecture for a background has been a great way for me to transition from my intricately involved yet introspective detail work to the desired aesthetics and air of something that would welcome wonder and inquisitiveness of whatever product it adorns.
  • Fortune teller
    Fortune teller
  • Hot Kokoro
    Hot Kokoro
  • label backdrop
    label backdrop
  • Peace Label
    Peace Label
  • plant crest
    plant crest
  • both
    both
  • Label assets progress
    Label assets progress