Crystal Hartman
Crystal Hartman (b. April 9, 1983, Durango Colorado, USA) explores interconnectivity through the lines and layers of the natural world. Her work utilizes experimental practices in painting, artist books, and the lost wax tradition to explore possibilities of harmonious living and offer
contemporary mythologies in which non-human life reigns. Hartman grew up in the mouth of a canyon, behind a jeweler’s bench, in southwest Colorado and began carving wax, cutting stones,
and forming metal as a child. After working as an apprentice with painter Stanton Englehart, she earned her BFA in Printmaking from the University of Colorado at Boulder. Recipient of a UROP grant for academic research on Femininity in Latin America, she cultivated a reverence for community and conversation. Hartman filmed professional and amateur skateboarding in Spain (2005-7), studied site specific craft in Thailand (2008), and founded/directed Durango
Open Studio (2009-11). In 2011, the artist received the Merwin Altfeld Memorial Award for Storytelling in the Arts from the National Watercolor Association. Her artwork has exhibited at the Center for Contemporary Culture Barcelona, Spain, the National Palace of Culture, Sofia Bulgaria, and the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art, Colorado, USA among others. Her work can be found globally in arts and literary publications, on album covers through independent labels, and book covers from Oxford University Press, London, and A5 Publishing,
Madrid. Her sculptural jewelry designs, carved of sustainably-harvested beeswax and ethically cast in fine metals, have been featured in Art Jewelry Magazine, and exhibited at locations such as the Lilstreet Art Gallery, Chicago IL, Kathleen Sommers, San Antonio TX, and through the Society of North American Goldsmiths. Hartman currently lives and works in Urbana Illinois.
