Crystal Marie, Deeper

Many an artist’s bio begins with a similar tale of knowing they were an artist from the time they were old enough to hold a crayon. The truth for me was that I had always been a writer. As an awkward, shy girl, in the 70s, I beamed when my story was selected to be read in front of the entire 3rd grade class. It happened again in high school, and then again in the one year I managed to go to college.

My first blog was called Other People’s Flowers, based on an obscure quote I stumbled on in a book of collectable ephemera, by the 16th century French philosopher, Michel de Montaigne:

"I have gathered here an offering of other people's flowers, bringing to them of my own only a thread to bind them with."

I wrote my first blog post there in 2006. It began as a place to share my work as a collage artist and connect with other artists at a time when Facebook was only for college students, and Instagram wasn’t a thing. I quickly learned that connecting to the deeper meaning in my work was as important to me as creating the work of art itself.

That blog became the place that I could be vulnerable and authentic in a way that life had never afforded me before. The more I wrote, the more I discovered about myself. The more I discovered, the more I wanted to know.

Fast forward to today, many years of therapy and healing from childhood trauma under my belt, newly diagnosed as autistic, an explanation for that awkward, often silent and scared- not shy, girl that I was. An explanation for the way that words will roll across my tongue demanding that I speak them. A reason for the melody that I hear when I write. So often dissatisfied if I can’t place them just right on the page.

Here, on this blog, I’ve named Crystal Marie, Deeper, I honor the girl who so often retreated to the closet under the stairs, book and flashlight in hand, to explore mystical, magical worlds in far away lands, as words danced across the page for her.

Crystal Marie, Artist

Crystal Marie is an artist and an author with a passion for teaching others how to recover their own unique voice. Her process is intuitive, which, she says, is simply the truest, most authentic version of her own voice.

Following her intuitive knowing has been the foundation of Crystal’s career as an artist, when in her 30s a happenstance encounter with a stranger handing her an art magazine was all it took to awaken that long forgotten place inside.

Today Crystal has an established career as a professional artist with gallery representation, one book published on the art of collage, and is currently writing a book about the intuitive voice. Crystal has exhibited her work in many fine art exhibitions, solo shows, and events. She teaches workshops on her website Canary Rising and (prior to the pandemic) locations across the US.

How your paid subscription helps

From the time my first book, The Art of Expressive Collage; Techniques for creating with paper and glue, was published in 2015, I knew there was another book to be written. It was to be my book without pictures- meaning it would not be a tutorial driven book, but one that dove deeper into what I had come to know through my work as an artist as the intuitive voice.

I proclaimed that 2021 would be the year I committed to the writing of it, but 2021 had ideas of its own. Finally, I came to understand that this thing that is so important to me is never going to happen if I don’t give myself a little accountability for the writing practice required.

Each of you, dear readers, will be my accountability partners. I commit to my writing practice here on the blog with monthly, or more, public essays on all manner of living life as a creative and a human.

And for those who will see the value of subscribing at the paid level, I will share excerpts from the book as I write it. My writing schedule for the book is sometimes sporadic, but I do everything in my power to keep this project in front of me. Your investment helps to allow me the margin necessary to continue to focus on this project. Paid subscriber benefits also include excerpts from my first book, The Art of Expressive Collage, which was published by North Light Books in 2015, and is now under the umbrella of Penguin Random House, but no longer available in print form.

The comments section on public posts is currently open to all subscribers at any level and I hope a robust dialogue between readers will ensue.