Topher Crowder

Voices, 2007
Ink on primed wood

My name is Christopher Crowder, you can call me Topher. What I do is I do large pen and ink drawings on wood panel. Conceptually they are streams of consciousness. There’s no sketching, no editing, no preconceived ideas. Basically just starting from the center and working out.

Why I do it? I do it as a release, in my case, the creativity inside me that I feel, I need to release it in a way that is healthy. I’ve tried not releasing it in the past and it turns to bitterness, it turns to anger, and then it turns to depression. Just like emotions, if they’re not released, if they’re stored up, pented up. My work is again, it’s selfish, it’s not going to change the world, it’s not going to help you recycle or anything like that, it’s raw, it’s my emotion on wood panel, and it’s what I feel. And it helps me. That’s why I do it.