Alice Crawley
 Alice Crawley |
 Tobey C. Anderson & Alice Crawley |
The Strength of Alice Crawley
When I first met Alice Crawley in the late 1960's she was an early middle aged family woman who worked as the librarian at the St. Catharines Standard newspaper. She appeared to be giving up on painting and was experimenting with three dimensional works and amazing woven wire wall pieces. Her house was filled with unique unfinished antique pieces of furniture, weather-worn architectural cornices and ornaments from old buildings, farm implements, fine old pots, and the like. An enormous hand loom completely filled her livingroom just inside the front entrance hall. Entering her house was like visiting the inner workings of her brain.
Alice was one of a handful of women in the vibrant and energetic group of artists who formed the Niagara Artists' Company. She was and is a true artist of enormous strength and resourcefulness with a fecund imagination. Her work was powerful and original, always surprising and in a constant state of flux. She was impervious to the barbs of critics or the pressures of the established art world to follow the trends. She seemed always to listen only to her inner voice, to follow her creative imperative, to get the new work done no matter what. She was deadly serious about her work, but never suppressed her wonderful sense of humour. I laughed out loud when I saw her tiny copulating saw horses in a NAC erotic miniature show. I was amazed by her show of segments of farm outbuildings. Her bronze birds' nests, wheat sheafs and whole trees took my breath away. Her life-like/death-like old Niagara tomb stone sculptures were shocking in their cold beauty and unadulterated truthfulness.
I have tried in vain to find the key to Alice's vision, to put my finger on the unifying constant in her oeuvre. But one constant is certainly the courage and determination with which she confronts her deepest and darkest joys, fears and concerns in making her art. She is not an entertainer or interior decorator. She is a truth sayer. I believe Alice Crawley is one of the largely unsung great artists of our time. It is a privilege to know her. Thank you Alice for your gift of truth to the world.
John Boyle, Peterborough, Ontario, Canada
April 16, 2004
on the occasion of her retrospective exhibition at the Durham Art Gallery