About Craig
When I was young, I lived and breathed martial arts. I expressed myself through movement in the martial arts to enter a flow state. Performing various Karate kata let the world fall away and allowed me to be completely present. Karate-Do and its philosophy have fundamentally shaped who I am today.
When I entered the world of construction and developed my skills as a tradesman, the medium changed, from expressing my art through movement, I began to express my art through my profession. My apprenticeship and trades training refined my ability to envision the final product of my work and pick the cleanest and most direct approach to completing the job. I have always considered the planning and layout of the job an art form in and of itself. I am a Plumber and Steamfitter, and a proud member of the United Association of Journeymen and Apprentices of the Plumbing and Pipefitting Industry, Local 254
I began yoga to maintain a mindful movement practice and to rehabilitate some chronic injuries from overuse in my profession and ballistic weightlifting with kettlebells. This quickly developed as a way for me to express myself physically through movement, much in the same way as martial arts had done. As my practice deepened, I discovered the philosophical side of yoga connected very closely to what I have been learning through Anishinaabe Sweat lodge and Sundance ceremonies for the past several decades. By combining the breathwork and movement of yoga with the lessons of Anishinaabe ceremony, I found a faster way to achieve flow states.
I began painting seriously during the lockdown of Covid. Practicing yoga and meditation was not enough to contain the creativity that was bubbling up inside me, I needed another form of expression, and thus began painting. My paintings have morphed over time. Some are very distinct and precise, but my main expression is complete abstraction. I use a combination of ceremony, breathwork and movement to enter a flow state, then remove myself from the process. By stepping out of the way, my subconscious can flow directly onto the canvas without ego interference. The less “I” am involved, the more truthful and source based the paintings become.
I have always strived to live in flow accomplishing this through various mediums and techniques, although I have only recently become truly aware of this need from within. Therefore, I have been an artist all my life, but only recently have felt comfortable using that reference for myself.
