Paper Mache is Artist's Forte-
Recee Crawford Dreams in Paper Mache

Produced by Camille Steed

Artist Recee Crawford works magic with paper mache. By taking piles of shredded paper she's able to sculpt an array of characters taken right out of everyday life. And then others that are not so everyday. Because a lot of her subjects come to her through her dreams.
[Crawford] "My dreams to me seem like a mixture of fact, fiction, wishful thinking, I guess. Depends on what kind of mood I'm in when I go to sleep. Sometime it's pretty spooky and I'll come up with some weird things like the spirit helmet, you know, depicting the different personalities that we all have, but we all have the man child and everything. My human chairs, you know, came from a dream."

Although Crawford has no formal art training, she has carved a unique medium in which to express her vision of the people and life around her. The first thing one notices about her subjects is are their faces.
[Crawford]) "I study people's facial expressions, you know. I guess people think I'm stuck on weird because I might stare at them and it's not because I'm staring at them for any other reason other than I like their bond structure or I like that particular look on their face and I'll get it and print it in my mind and when I get home, you know, I might make that facial feature or that different mood."
Another unique feature of her work is the unusual forms her characters take on.
[Crawford] "The positions that they're in, I did not put them in there. When they're in the drying process, you know, they twist and turn the way they want to go. I can't touch them because they're drying. So I just let them go that way. But I truly believe when I leave here they have a party, you know, and when I'm putting the key back into the door it's like they say "Ah, she's back" you know, and they're stuck in that position.