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Crystal Marie, Deeper
Many an artist’s bio begins with a similar tale of knowing they were an artist from the time they were old enough to hold a crayon. The truth for me was that I had always been a writer. As an awkward, shy girl, in the 70s, I beamed when my story was selected to be read in front of the entire 3rd grade class. It happened again in high school, and then again in the one year I managed to go to college.
My first blog was called Other People’s Flowers, based on an obscure quote I stumbled on in a book of collectable ephemera, by the 16th century French philosopher, Michel de Montaigne:
"I have gathered here an offering of other people's flowers, bringing to them of my own only a thread to bind them with."
I wrote my first blog post there in 2006. It began as a place to share my work as a collage artist and connect with other artists at a time when Facebook was only for college students, and Instagram wasn’t a thing. I quickly learned that connecting to the deeper meaning in my work was as important to me as creating the work of art itself.
That blog became the place that I could be vulnerable and authentic in a way that life had never afforded me before. The more I wrote, the more I discovered about myself. The more I discovered, the more I wanted to know.
Fast forward to today, many years of therapy and healing from childhood trauma under my belt, newly diagnosed as autistic, an explanation for that awkward, often silent and scared- not shy, girl that I was. An explanation for the way that words will roll across my tongue demanding that I speak them. A reason for the melody that I hear when I write. So often dissatisfied if I can’t place them just right on the page.
Here, on this blog, I’ve named Crystal Marie, Deeper, I honor the girl who so often retreated to the closet under the stairs, book and flashlight in hand, to explore mystical, magical worlds in far away lands, as words danced across the page for her.
