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About Bonnie

Baltimore City - Station North A&E District
Baltimore-based artist and mom Bonnie Crawford does not sleep well. Her work explores how intimacy, risk, and harm inform habits of care. She began working this way when she became a single mother of two and in turn became dependent on extralegal, queer family structures for support. She received an MFA from the University of Maryland Baltimore County and a BA in Studio Art from the University of Maryland College Park. She was awarded a prize in the 2015 Juried… more
View Bonnie's Resume
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usually better than getting

usually better than getting is a site-specific installation installed in the dining room of a 1940s bungalow. A light-emitting improvisational sculpture pulses from behind the doors of a china cabinet.
  • Improvisation in China Hutch
    Improvisation in China Hutch
    Improvisational sculptures installed in a china cabinet. Materials include wood, found objects, craft fur, and pulsing LED lights.
  • wide-installation-shot-chinahutch.jpg
    wide-installation-shot-chinahutch.jpg
    Installation view at China Hutch Projects
  • Improvisation in China Hutch
    Improvisation in China Hutch
    Improvisational sculptures installed in a china cabinet. Materials include wood, found objects, craft fur, and pulsing LED lights.
  • Improvisation in China Hutch
    Improvisation in China Hutch
    Improvisational sculptures installed in a china cabinet. Materials include wood, found objects, craft fur, and pulsing LED lights.
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    • Insomnia Drawings

    Inspired by the Insomnia Drawings series of Louise Bourgeois, I make drawings by the light of my phone when I awake in the night. I then photograph the drawings against the backdrop of my bed sheets using my phone’s camera. The flash of the camera creates a shadowy vignette that frames these watercolor drawings. From August of 2016 through November 2018, I made 400 drawings. 


    • Insomnia Drawing 400
      Insomnia Drawing 400
      Watercolor and Ink on Paper, 2018. 5 x 7 in
    • Insomnia Drawing 397
      Insomnia Drawing 397
      Watercolor and Ink on Paper, 2018. 5 x 7 in
    • Insomnia Drawing 394
      Insomnia Drawing 394
      Watercolor and Ink on Paper, 2018. 5 x 7 in
    • Insomnia Drawing 230
      Insomnia Drawing 230
      watercolor and ink on paper
    • Insomnia Drawing 149
      Insomnia Drawing 149
      watercolor and ink on paper
    • Insomnia Drawing 106
      Insomnia Drawing 106
      watercolor and ink on paper
    • Insomnia Drawing 090
      Insomnia Drawing 090
      watercolor and ink on paper
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    • or, if there be flooding

    or, if there be flooding serves as an imagined response plan to a potential catastrophe. The title of this piece is a fragment from Advice to a Wife and Mother, published in 1878. Flooding, in the context of the book, refers to postpartum hemorrhaging. However, this euphemistic language can be more literally interpreted to reference natural disasters or rising sea levels. Blinking lights aimed at shadowy vignettes of accumulated detritus in the installation signal tenderly to the viewer a warning, a lament.
    • or, if there be flooding (detail)
      or, if there be flooding (detail)
      Electrical circuitry, hand-stitched custom printed fabric, digital prints on Photo-Tex, latex wall paint, painted twigs, found materials
    • or, if there be flooding (installation view)
      or, if there be flooding (installation view)
      Electrical circuitry, hand-stitched custom printed fabric, digital prints on Photo-Tex, latex wall paint, painted twigs, found materials
    • or, if there be flooding (detail)
      or, if there be flooding (detail)
      Electrical circuitry, hand-stitched custom printed fabric, digital prints on Photo-Tex, latex wall paint, painted twigs, found materials
    • or, if there be flooding (installation view)
      or, if there be flooding (installation view)
      Electrical circuitry, hand-stitched custom printed fabric, digital prints on Photo-Tex, latex wall paint, painted twigs, found materials
    •

    • Light Emitting Studies, 2015

    Bonnie Crawford's Light Emitting Studies 2015 consist of hand stitched soft sculptures, painted wood, cheap craft materials, and electrical circuits. The electronic components used to control the lights are free form soldered as elements of the sculptural composition. Tiny sensors in the circuits respond to the ambient light in the room to alter the rate of the blinking lights.