More About Laura's Artwork
Laura Crabtree Hollenbeck spends a lot of time on each painting. She's heard suggestions that she switch to abstractions as a quick way to produce a body of work, "instead of spending 40 hours on a painting."
"I've done the quick thing, but I don't even want to sign my name to it if it's not finished, in my mind." To capture all the details, visual and otherwise, Laura spends time with her subjects.
Part of her Fulton Street Farmers Market series is a portrait of a hen, Phyllis. Head topped with an exotic plume of feathers, the subject carries a sense of nobility and pride seen in 18th century portraits of French aristocrats in their powdered wigs. "I followed her around all over that farm!" Laura says of that subject.
"There's really a story behind whatever it is," she says. At Fulton Street she spotted a girl playing a violin. The girl seemed to be playing for the large crowd of customers at the market. Laura tried to get her attention as she played, but she was playing to an individual deep in the crowd -- a man who was riveted on her, his daughter. "He was watching her like a hawk." Laura thought of all the girls who don't get attention or motivation from their fathers. "For some reason, I had to paint that girl."
Crane Dance Farm, in Middleville, Mich., became a focus of Laura's Artprize paintings. "It was really special, because they really struggled so hard to get to where they are. And it was kind of neat because eventually they were allowed to get married." Laura presented some of her Crane Dance paintings to the women as wedding gifts.
At Black Sheep Crossing, a farm animal sanctuary, Laura met a horse with a story. Named Lucky, he was abused and was likely to be shipped to a "French chef," she says. Lucky was rescued to spend the rest of his life in a sunny Michigan field. Of course she had to paint his portrait. The livestock in her work all live on cruelty-free farms. "I can't fathom what the manufacturing facilities do to animals."
She says, "I need to capture the beauty in my observations. I'm too sensitive to what's ugly."
