By Jessica May

One of Chad Crane's paintings. / Photo by Jessica May

Whether Chad Crane will become the next Picasso or Van Gogh, time will tell. But famous or not, it is easy to tell the USU art student loves art.

Crane's love for painting began when he was a child. Crane remembers falling asleep to the relaxing sound of Bob Ross swiping his paintbrush across the canvas. His interest was sparked when he entered kindergarten and ran into some coloring challenges. Apparently, his coloring job of a rooster outline was not up to par for the teacher. After receiving some stern reprimand, Crane made up his mind that he was not only going to stay inside the lines, but he was going to be the best "color-er" in the class. From that day on, his talent and love for art have continued to expand.

With a great love for learning, Crane has appreciated his instructors and experiences while studying art at Utah State University. He's enjoyed working under the direction of Chris Terry, painting instructor, as well as Jon Anderson and Glenn Edwards, two of USU art department's emeritus professors. While he compliments his professors, Crane expressed the need for USU to hire more faculty members in order to house the number of students who are interested in the art program.

"There are too many people, not enough art classes," says Crane.

While Crane has learned a lot from his professors, he finds time to appreciate other great artists. "I adore Picasso," stated Crane. While Picasso could draw the human anatomy as well as anyone else, he took his skills and talents in a different direction. Even though his paintings look a bit childlike, Crane finds perfection in the way that Picasso was able to display design principles and solid art skills in his work.

Playing off of that love for Picasso, Crane strives to find his own methods of creating images that display his unique view of life. Using a lot of mixed media -- acrylics, oil pastels and even magic markers -- Crane seizes the opportunity to be creative and express himself.

Art is a way to "transfer emotion to another form -- something tangible," says Crane, "and after I am done, I feel better."

While he finds inspiration in his surroundings, such as the towering mountains around Logan, Crane noted that his most profound source of inspiration comes from the emotional well within himself.

When asked what he finds himself usually projecting onto the canvas, Crane explained, "Mostly I just try to describe my emotions and how I feel."

Crane finds that writing poems and songs is another great way to vent his emotions and express his innermost thoughts.

While his paintings all display an element of his emotional side, Crane hopes that viewers can notice the unique characteristics in each piece of his work. Many artists have a particular style, but Crane tries to step away from that categorization, claiming that he doesn't want to "get stuck" with any particular label.

After graduation Crane's options remain very open. He might teach at a junior college, or he might possibly take to writing and illustrating children's books. There is even the possibility that he might go to grad school and abandon a career in art all together, but one thing is for sure: Wherever he goes, whatever he does, Crane will be painting and creating, as all true artists do.

MS
MS