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Emmanuel Crespo needs a hug.
Last time we caught up with the Philippines-born, Otis-educated artist at Bermudez Projects, he was debuting his children’s book, To the Moon and Back, which took us to a mythological wonderland, filled with color, light, and hope. His new show – A Murder of Crows – is for the adults in the room.
While To the Moon and Back found Crespo’s daughter Malia flying into the heavens as she explored her own magical reality, A Murder of Crows, which opens March 14 at Bermudez Projects NELA/Cypress Park, is a frank psychological autobiography, using classical archetypes and those of Crespo’s invention to explore the meaning of his life. And you’ve got a front row seat to the deeply personal and often wrenching process.
For A Murder of Crows, Crespo is using a stark palette – black and white, and minimal grays. It not only hearkens back to his illustrative pen and ink beginnings, but also, because they’re more rapidly rendered, lets his characters evolve faster and tell more of their story. “The play of black and white,” Crespo says, “positive and negative, shines a light into the shadows.”
So who and what is revealed?
The Old Man is back, headless or topped with a head of the crow, representing Crespo’s grandfather. “He is the Father, the Source, a harbinger of secrets and wisdom, my origins and also my destiny,” says Crespo.
The Old Woman is, too. “In addition to being my grandmother, she is Mother Nature, with a wisdom older than that revealed by the old man.” She is a gentle guide.
The Goldfish is back, and so is the Crow, but he’s morphed from an ominous being into a protagonist role.
As you get older, you realize the Tricksters aren’t here to hurt you, but send you along a new path with a not-always-gentle kick in the ass.
And lastly, we have The Mythmaker, a shirtless and shoeless man with cuffed pants, which Crespo says “symbolized a shedding of his mundane roles and a stepping into an alternate reality, or at least an alternate view of reality.” But now, instead of wearing a large crow mask, he’s topped with an actual crow’s head. Whereas before he was “pretending to be something he forgot he already was,” he is no longer pretending, but has fully assumed the magical role.
Is this Crespo himself?
His artist’s statement gives the answer:
“I often find myself in a lonely point in the middle of a vast universe, surrounded yet distant, and I often feel the imagery of my work is trying to reassure me of my place in this universe, that I am more than the limits of my perception, my abilities, my weaknesses, my vices, my strengths, more than even my time here. And since I am the source of my own imagery, then perhaps I am trying to remind myself of a truth that I already know.”
There are some artists who make work so people will like it. There are others who make unattractive work that addresses their artistic urge. Then there are the lucky artists like Emmanuel Crespo, whose works speak to anyone muddling through life.
Maybe we all need a hug.
Emmanuel Crespo’s fantastical imaginings are dreamlike apparitions of his own personal journey. Through his body of work, the artist uncovers and interprets symbolic meanings and narratives in his life and the world around him. Each painting presents a cast of recurring characters created to uncover these narratives, which according to the artist, center on metaphysical themes. Crespo’s paintings allow the viewer to peer into another world and experience these narratives.
Born in Quezon City, Philippines in 1977, Crespo moved to the United States at the age of 6. He received his MFA from Otis College of Art and Design in 2002. His work has been featured in group and solo shows throughout Southern California, including the Armory Center for the Arts, Sweeney Art Gallery, and The Brewery, as well as Paris, France. He is a full-time art instructor at Bishop Alemany High School in Mission Hills. Crespo lives and works in Sylmar, CA.
