Soy Crispy.
Crispy’s fascination with creative storytelling is lifelong and boundless. As early as 2 years of age, Crispy was drawing on any surface available, a skill later refined in science class through observational sketches of various specimen.
More recently, Crispy has left the drafting tools in favor of the vivid colors of oil and watercolor paint. As a lifelong DIY home-improver, Crispy has also expanded into the medium of sculpture to offer functional and durable home decor. In 2023, Crispy partnered with A. Malakoff to launch the Unidos Art collective of independent artists to help drive the value of artworks made by historically-marginalized artists and utilize the proceeds toward collective action and social change.
Vamos Unidos
"The crispiest bits come from nature and in our digital cave-like labyrinth of echo chambers, I want my art to be a vehicle for change and connectivity as my generation attempts to resolve the blunders of previous generations. As such, each of my artworks is inspired by forces and symbols from nature, seeking to preserve and inform for future generations, to whom it may be lost, an environment’s subjective feeling and state of balance. In helping people find a sense of place on the Earth, I hope my art can generate enough resources to begin realistically addressing the systemic problems that plague society – greed, food insecurity, access to education, reproductive rights, and global climate change to name a few."
Follow Crispy on Social Media
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Instagram: @crispythefounder
TikTok: @crispy.bits
Crispy's Kit
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Oil Paints
My palette's design is based on the electromagnetic spectrum of visible light by prioritizing lightfastness, tinting strength, and transparency for optical mixing and glazing. Blue Ridge Oil Colors are my all time favorite oil paints for their handmade buttery consistency and saturated color. If they ever release a Dioxazine Purple (PV23) my palette will be complete.
- Transparent Red Oxide (PR101)
- Napthol Red (PR112)
- Indian Yellow (PY110)
- Hansa Yellow (PY74)
- Phthalo Green - Yellow Shade (PG36)
- Phthalo Green - Blue Shade (PG7)
- Prussian Blue (PB27)
- Ultramarine Blue (PB29)
- Dioxazine Purple (PV23) - The only non-Blue Ridge Oil Color paint that I source from Gamblin
- Quinacridone Magenta (PR122)
- Titanium White (PW6)
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Watercolor Paints
My watercolor palette is a clear echo of my oil paint palette. Each color was selected for lightfastness, transparency, and tinting strength for an optimized color mixing palette. Due to the humid Florida conditions, I primarily paint with Daniel Smith Watercolors. I particularly enjoy their smooth granulation, concentrated pigment load and the way they transform an image as they dry.
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Paint Brushes
- Blick Mega Round Brush, Size 50 for priming
- Rosemary & Co. Series 2095. Short Round, Size 12 for contour and block-in
- Utrecht Rhenish Round, Size 8 for contour, block-in, and refinement
- Da Vinci Maestro Kolinsky Travel Brush Round, Size 6 - contour and refinement for watercolor
- Rosemary & Co. Series 2035. Pointed Round, Size 3 - contour and refinement for oil painting
- Artist Loft Wide Synthetic Gesso Chip Brush, 3 inch for varnish
- Rosemary & Co. Bravura Long Flat, Size 16 for block-in
- Rosemary & Co. Series 2015. Short Flat, Size 12 for block-in
- Rosemary & Co. Bravura Long Flat, Size 10 for block-in and refinement
- Rosemary & Co. Bravura Long Flat, Size 8 for block-in and refinement
- Utrecht Rhenish Flat, Size 5 for block-in and refinement
- Escoda Clásico Bright, Size 8 for contour and refinement
- Rosemary & Co. Bravura Filbert, Size 10 for block-in and refinement
- Rosemary & Co. Bravura Filbert, Size 8 for block-in and refinement
- Rosemary & Co. Series 37. Fan Brush, Size Small for refinement
- Silver Brush Black Goat Mop Oval, 1/2 inch - for blocking in watercolor paintings
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Palette Knives
- Blick RGM Italy painting knife #103 & #040 for impasto and refinement
- Blick RGM Italy painting knife #015 for mixing value lines
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Mediums
- Windsor & Newton Liquin Original for fast drying needs
- Windsor & Newton Refined Linseed Oil
- Gamblin's Gamsol
- Gamblin's Gamvar Satin for varnish
Crispy's Sculptures
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Sold out
Large Birdfeeder - Sculpture
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Large Jewelry Box - Sculpture
Vendor:Regular price $40.00 USDRegular priceUnit price / per$40.00 USDSale price $40.00 USD -
Small Jewelry Box - Sculpture
Vendor:Regular price $25.00 USDRegular priceUnit price / per$25.00 USDSale price $25.00 USD -
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Large Birdhouse - Sculpture
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Crispy's Prints
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La Wanda - Giclée Print
Vendor:Regular price From $50.00 USDRegular priceUnit price / per$50.00 USDSale price From $50.00 USD -
ILY - Giclée Print
Vendor:Regular price $70.00 USDRegular priceUnit price / per$70.00 USDSale price $70.00 USD -
Magnolia Park Sunset - Giclée Print
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The Great Wave of Central Florida - Giclée Print
Vendor:Regular price From $45.00 USDRegular priceUnit price / per$45.00 USDSale price From $45.00 USD
Crispy's Paintings
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View at Sand Lake - Original Painting
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Camellia Hiemalis - Original Painting
Vendor:Regular price $250.00 USDRegular priceUnit price / per$250.00 USDSale price $250.00 USD -
Gratiturkey - Original Painting
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La Siesta - Original Painting
Vendor:Regular price $250.00 USDRegular priceUnit price / per$250.00 USDSale price $250.00 USD
Read my Artist Statement below
La Familia Bits
A bit is the smallest unit of information. My family name, Bits, comes from the Proto-Indo-European root word, bheid-, meaning ‘to split’ and later ‘to bite’ or ‘woodwork’. I was named Crispy for my propensity to nourish and restore weary humans with my recipes for delectable knowledge, my collection of bytes. I was lucky or cursed to be steeped in data for as long I can remember. In the presence of so many data streams, information overload has given me strange dreams and visions of past, present, and future possibilities. In every dataflow exists a nascent being staring into us and reaching out to realize a physical state. Our species calls it Art, and I am uniquely gifted to work on its behalf. The focus of my art is healing and restoring natural systems to homeostasis. I will only be cursed if our species cannot correct its current trajectory.
Origins of My Art
Bits can be represented as 0s or 1s in computer systems, or, in nervous systems, as the excitatory (+) or inhibitory (-) state of a neuron. Anything with two separate states of being can be represented by a bit. I realized I might be an artist when I could hold multiple disparate states of being in balance and make a dialogue of their interplay. I knew I was an artist when my creations began living up to my namesake, feeding hungry minds and restoring people from their famished states.
My art operates like the Maillard reaction, taking the simplest, purest ingredients of shape, color, form, value and space, and recombining them into grander and more sustenant states of being seasoned with positive and negative vibrations. I make something out of nothing by observing the world around me, questioning its potential, and documenting the results in oil on canvas, watercolor on paper, or sculpted wood.
My Process
The first bit I identify in any of my creations is the music that will serve as the soundtrack to my art’s development. Lately this has consisted of George Clinton and Parliament-Funkadelic, King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard, and the Carter Family’s songbook. The most important bit to establish in my art takes the longest and requires observing the subject and noting the shapes, colors, and values defining it. I know I have found the subject for an artwork when I observe a reference image or scene from life where the subject is in its most natural, authentic state.
For example, in La Wanda, I took a reference photo of a cow named Wanda whose personality seemed to escape the frame. In reality, Wanda’s enthusiasm for attention and human contact cannot be contained. For more complex subjects, I often tackle the challenges of light and form with a notan study and gesture drawing to identify areas in light and shadow and the contours of complicated shapes. With these foundational aspects identified, I choose a maximum of four hues to express the image and select an album that my synesthesia interprets in those colors (for La Wanda, red-orange, yellow-green, and primary yellow; Mercedes Sosa En Argentina followed by Expensive Sh*t by Fela Kuti).
In order to enter a painting mindset, I mix a value line for each hue on a glass palette against a warm value 5 gray background and select a limited set of brushes (~3-4) for contour, block-in, refinement, and signing. At this point, I am set to whip up a harmonious delicious series of grays and analogs alla prima based on the colors I have selected for the image.
When I enter my woodshop to sculpt, I bring gesture drawings of the subject to inform the development of molds and templates. Working wood requires significantly more negotiation with the medium in order to realize a final vision. No two pieces are the same and each grain and knot can simultaneously subtract and add to the finished piece. Sculpting, like Jazz, allows me to improvise more with the material in order to discover new territories and compromises. While it is new to my repertoire, I look forward to exploring the limits of functional sculpted art as well as the artist’s ability to imbue value in waste materials from woodworking.
As my portfolio grows, I intend to expand my body of work with one hand painting subjects from life en plein air and the other crafting projects and relationships to develop a sustainable community. If I am successful, I will know it when artists across the Earth begin leading positive social change through the power of their art. If I fail, I will at least know that in the face of an impossible task, I tried everything I could where I am, with what I am capable of doing, to bring some sort of change.