Carole Crews
Earth, Mica and Paper
July 19 – August 30, 2025
As the daughter of photographer Mildred Tolbert and poet Judson Crews, my childhood was influenced by their association with the “Taos Moderns” and creativity was a big part of our lives. During my years as an art student at UT Austin, I explored geometric color work in large paintings of triangular grids, and one was included in the 1976 Southwest Biennale at the Santa Fe Museum of Fine Arts. I worked with batik and dyed fabric from which I made original clothing, then moved to Maine for two years and learned how to use powdered pigments from Ben Shahn’s daughter, Abby.
After returning to New Mexico and building my first adobe home, I became fascinated with earthen plasters and paints, and developed their compositions more fully in collaboration with Lori Lawyer, my partner in our “Gourmet Adobe” business. Building my adobe dome led me to the opportunity to teach these earthen plaster and alis techniques to natural builders during twenty years of colloquia.
I have made my own paper with added mica, sculpted many earthen bas-relief walls and plaques, and have continued to explore various media over the years, including fresco. Although I have participated in numerous group shows and have shown in various shops and galleries, I have not made selling my artwork a priority. Nowadays I often play the autoharp, sing and write songs, and appreciate that there is no mess to clean up after immersing myself in the invisible realm of sound.
✣ words by Carole Crews
Carole Crews (b. 1950, Taos, NM) is a multi-disciplinary artist who primarily works with earth, mica, and paper. She was born and raised in Taos, New Mexico in a creative family. She attended the University of Texas at Austin, earning a BFA in studio art in 1972. Shortly after graduating, she returned to New Mexico and immersed herself in learning and eventually teaching earthen building, plaster, and paint methods. She is the author of the book Clay Culture: Plasters, Paints and Preservation.
Crews work is most often informed by an exploration of materials. Through their transformational qualities, she gain insights into her own nature and finds they echo what is current in the world. She feels that the lifelong practice of making art has helped her to tune into the elemental vibrational forces that permeate our universe and generate life. She hopes that her work reminds viewers of the harmony and consistency found in the patterns that create our material world and that link us to universal spirit, the spirit of love and creation. Because color and sound are segments of the wavelengths and vibrations that make up the universe, she find them to be powerful, synergistic embodiments of that life force, even when used in subtle, nuanced ways.