About the Artist

About the Artist

A Word from the Artist:

I have worked with Photography and painting since the late 1970's. Back in the day, I created my photos in the darkroom.Lately I have been creating layered portrait-based works where I place a photographic image of a person within an abstract, textured field.

Through accumulation, mark making and surface treatment, I build backgrounds that hold emotion and atmosphere, allowing the figure to emerge within a space that feels both real and imagined. The contrast between the clarity of the person and the instability of the surrounding surface reflects my interest in identity, presence, and the and the complexity of how we see one another. It also created a visual space where realism and abstraction meet, shifting from documentation into interpretation.

Bio:  Crystal Laman is a San Diego-based expressionist and mixed-media artist whose work pulses with bold color, intuitive movement, and a hint of mischief. Working primarily in acrylics and photo transfer, she blends raw emotion with a spontaneous, playful energy.

Originally from Colorado, Crystal began her artistic path on the East Coast at the Boston School of Art but soon felt the magnetic pull of the West again, completing her BFA at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque. That return westward shaped her creative DNA: free-spirited, a little rebellious, and always in motion.

Her current body of work challenges traditional formats—think vibrant, large-scale pieces cut from birch wood using a jigsaw, rejecting the rectangle in favor of fluid, liberated shapes. Even the act of cutting outside the lines is a statement: art should move the way the artist moves—freely.