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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 21, 2015)
LIFESTYLES WEEKEND, FEBRUARY 21-22, 2015 1C Staff photo by E.J. Harris Rosco Crooke uses a fine-tipped brush while working on a piece called “Thinking Happy Thoughts” at his home Wednesday in Pendleton. His heart in paint Rosco Crooke uses bright colors, canvas to explore his inner self subjects he thought people were interested in buying. “I tried to do landscapes, I tried to do undreds of bottles of neon portraits,” he recalled, “but that felt like pulling teeth, that was and glow-in-the-dark awful.” paints stand across the So he turned to what spoke top of Rosco “Carrico” Crooke’s to him — exploring emotions, kitchen table, his makeshift art thoughts and states of being on studio. A colorful, shimmering canvas. “I’ve always been a per- work that looks like so many son who has to visualize things to pieces of hard candy sits near understand them,” he said. “Tree completion, two others are of Doubt,” for example, shows a in more basic stages. Several silhouette of a tree against a stark adorn the walls of his home near background, its barren branches downtown Pendleton. wilting, almost like tears falling. Crooke, 38, a beefy man +HDYRLGVÀDWSDLQWV²³,W¶V with a dry laugh, has spent the ÀDW´KHVDLG³<RXNQRZLW¶V past two years developing into a just not fun.” — and covers the painter, about the same time he canvas in bold, intense neons, broke away from a stressful job DWWKHSRVWRI¿FHWRUHVHWKLVKHDG glow-in-the-dark, and metal- lic paints. The paints and their he said, and “just relax.” (He combinations allow the colors to and a few of his friends were the shift depending on the light, and subject of a March 2013 lifestyle in black light, or course, they take on living the graveyard shift). on entirely new characteristics. Crooke said he sold tie-dyed Working with the paints T-shirts and worked odd jobs has taken plenty of trial and to pay the bills, and his mother, error, Crooke said. Some of the Donna Crooke, who died last substances are thin, so he applies July, encouraged him to give layer after layer to build up col- painting a go. Tapping into this ors. And the paints takes several creative vein took him back to hours to dry, so he said he works his childhood, he said, when he on three canvases at a time, mov- watched his grandmother, Pat ing from one to the other as he Carrico, paint. needs. Most works take about a “I was always fascinated as month to complete, he estimated, a kid — how’d she do that?” he but some took several months to said. a year. His early efforts focused on Crooke often uses glow-in- the-dark paints in many of his works. Here are an example of his paintings as seen under a black light. The works are (top) “Bereaved,” “Melancholy Me,” “Inside a Child Like Mind,” (bottom) “Her Emotional Metamorpho- sis” and “Pro- biotic Cure for Depression.” By PHIL WRIGHT East Oregonian H Staff photo by E.J. Harris Building up layers also allows him to play with depth, shapes and textures to create other multi- dimensional effects. Cellular-like structures in “Probiotic Cure for Depression” look scooped out, but close inspection reveals the paint and texture help fool the eye. “That’s really important to me,” he said. “I want to achieve real texture, real depth.” Family and friends will gander at the works for hours, he said, and even point out images he did not realize he created. And someone always asks him what he calls his style. “Some people call it ‘organ- Staff photo by E.J. Harris Artist Rosco Crooke works on a painting titled “Thinking Happy Thoughts” at his home studio Wednesday in Pendleton. ical,’” he said. “Kind of leaning toward that a little.” The term “abstract” comes up a lot, he said, but not much of his work is abstract, which in art is a VLPSOL¿FDWLRQRIIRUPV&URRNH¶V paintings have all sorts of images, but they are not usually abstracts of real things. The work is more IUHHDQGÀRZLQJWKRXJKFRPSOL- cated. “I’m trying to make my own style, my own avant garde thing,” he said. He also often employs oval canvases. Squares and rectangles make people look to the edges and for points to where the work ends, he said, but ovals move eyes to the center. And ovals are a common shape for mirrors, he said, which again plays into the UHÀHFWLYHTXDOLW\RIWKHSLHFHV Crooke described himself as “hyper-emotional,” and what he feels he puts into the work. He made “Tree of Doubt” when he questioned if he was on the right life path, if he maybe should chuck the whole artist thing and strive for a regular job. “After it was done ... doubt will not control me,” he said. “I’m going to move past it,” Crooke has taken to the Internet to help market himself as an artist and his paintings. His website, www.carricocreations. com, as well as the commercial website Etsy, has allowed him to sell works locally and to folks hundreds of miles away. He also has used “guerrilla marketing” to help build some buzz, though a UHFHQWHIIRUWEDFN¿UHG He said a few weeks ago he mailed pictures of his art and an accompanying messages to 18 people in Pendleton — some who work at a bank, teachers at Blue Mountain Community College, two mental health professionals and one medical doctor. He said the hope was to get a few people talking about the painting and sharing about his work. But some of the recipients called the police on Feb. 5. Pend- leton police Chief Stuart Roberts said the photos and the “cryptic messages” on them made a few people uneasy and concerned, so Sgt. Paul Wolverton looked into it. Roberts said Crooke cooper- ated with the brief investigation and did not violate the law, but KHVKRXOG¿QGDEHWWHUZD\WRJHW out his message. “I feel bad it was received that way,” Crooke said. “That was not my intent.” A more traditional display of his work is on the horizon at the Pendleton Center for the Arts. Center director Roberta Lavadour said she took a look at Crooke’s portfolio and offered him to have a showing in the center’s Lorenzen Board Room Gallery. The area showcases artists who are just starting out, she said, and lets them gain some expo- sure while they learn the ropes of being artists, which includes how to display work and create artist statements. Lavadour said Crooke’s paintings will be on display June 4-26. Crook said he is thrilled with the prospect and aims to have at least 10 paintings for the show. The tricky part, though, might be trying to show the paintings under a black light. ——— Contact Phil Wright at pwright@eastoregonian.com or 541-966-0833.
