Dr. Crystal McDonald

You can follow along with Crystal’s journey on Instagram: @beingboldishue or visit their website at huespalette.wixsite.com/crystal-mcdonald.

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Transcript

My name is Crystal, or you can call me Doctor Mac. I am an industrial-organizational psychologist. In terms of my background, I went to undergrad for architecture, and then I spent some time working in business and so forth.

Now, I do kind of a hybrid between consulting, clinical work, and then the majority of my time is going to be spent making my artwork as a professional artist.

So, when in your life did you begin your creative pursuit, and what led you there?
I started my creative pursuit—oh my gosh—probably since I was five. I remember one of the first times I had an allowance, I took it and went to the dollar store and just bought some stuff to draw with, and it kind of started there, just picking up on it. But what really made art stick with me was my grandmother. She was the one who actually taught me how to draw.

She taught me how to draw white lilies on a snow day from school, and ever since then, it just stuck with me.

Is there a foundation of inspiration you draw from? Is it a person, a book, an artist?
That’s a really good question. What inspires my artwork—I think it’s threefold. The first fold: my artwork is my time that I spend with God. That’s really important to me. First and foremost, that’s my time with Him.

Second fold: I’m obsessed with systems and patterns within the environment because I research creativity and how environments and so forth affect that. So I try to find the chaos within everyday life, and then mimic those patterns throughout my artwork.

The third fold of it would be architecture. Architecture is really important to me because I take a lot of the skill set I learned—especially around line weights and drafting—and I utilize that in my artwork.

I’m here at Azule because a few years ago I had an injury that impacted my ability to do large scale work, which is my passion. I’m working towards being a muralist. So the big thing here was looking at patterns and systems, and then really getting a feel for my body—to understand how intense I can work, how slow can work, also what colors I’m drawn to, and figuring out where my baseline is post-injury. That was the biggest thing I worked on.

In terms of pieces, this one I finished yesterday. It’s titled Matthew 5:37—one of my favorite scriptures. It’s basically about being evenly yoked. So, when you say yes, it means yes. When you say no, it means no. Anything in between is of the evil one.

That’s something I was exploring through some personal experiences, and just that tension—what goes on internally in order to be a clear person. That’s really important to me, in how I live and how I interact with people—that when I say something, they know it’s of the truth and it’s clear.

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve received?
Best piece of advice I’ve received… oh. I think the best piece of advice I have received is…That’s a really good question because I’ve met some cool people in my life. I don’t usually get sent for a loop—I see you smiling there.

I would say the best advice I was given is… I’m a very structured and Type A, systematic person. And I’d say in the past year of my life—it’s more of a collective—is to be curious and allow yourself to do that, and see where it takes you.

But within that curiosity, still moving to making decisions with it instead of necessarily being indecisive. So the biggest thing I would say is to be curious.

Another thing I’ve learned from within what I’ve been advised on is when you see someone practicing humility, acknowledge it. We tend to focus on the negative and don’t realize how hard it is to hold oneself accountable—especially around others—and the feelings that can come up. When you see somebody doing the hard thing, acknowledge it. You want that behavior to continue in them.

A big thing I like to work on is portraiture and abstract shapes. I like to work very minimalistic. I prefer black and white—it’s like my baby, it’s my home. This one was looking at static emotions, pulling out different patterns to convey the emotion I’m trying to show.

When I do portraits, I try to identify unexpressed emotions—of people, of things, or within situations—and I try to encapsulate that within a portrait. That’s what I was working on there, with a gesture drawing, constraining myself to about two hours or so.

Sometimes when I work, I have a lot of ideas at once. I’ve had the same little bouncy ball since I was in undergrad. I’ll have five different ideas at once. This one kept coming up to me—this idea of being curled in—but I knew I didn’t want to work it. Sometimes when you allow yourself to be curious, you express what’s needed so you can focus on what needs to be present. That’s how I got to that one over there. It also lets me know that since the idea keeps returning, I’ll need to work on it eventually.

Oops—I’m attached. You can keep that in there. This is me just being myself at this point. Oh gosh. It’s with me. I’m gonna hold on to that then.

Another thing I was working on—I typically don’t work in bright colors. Don’t like them. One-star Amazon review there. But I do it intentionally when I’m trying to figure out how to layer. If you see me working in bright colors, it’s because I’m trying to figure out patterns. Then I’ll use more muted, neutral colors to figure out big conceptual shapes.

I actually pulled a lot of stuff from around Azule. This pattern I pulled from one of the cushions upstairs—repetitive circles—and allowing that. So that’s what I was working on here.

This first came to me after a trip to Atlanta a few weeks ago. I was really obsessed with this school of fish. I liked how when they were clumped together, they created this iridescent grouping. That’s what I was working on—mimicking that system of grouping for a later project. I knew I wanted to do something with that while I was here.

This is the big one—Matthew 5:37—where I really tied everything together that I’ve been working on for the past eight months. Pulling in patterns and so forth. It was really about building, and it allowed me to embrace my authenticity—that I’m not really a painter. I prefer drawing, but I like utilizing paint to express movement within a piece. I was really happy I did that.

This one—I’ll hold it up for you. It’s not completely done—but what artist is ever completely done? Okay, show and tell. This one—if you notice the system of circles and patterns. Circles, if you haven’t picked up on it, is my favorite shape. That’s what I was working on here. Utilizing broad strokes to create those linear lines I enjoy.

A lot of times, if you see anything painted, it’s because I’m processing an idea. Sometimes, when I work bigger, the strokes have to be bold and sharp. That can feel like a lot of pressure at times. For instance, if you notice the curvature—to have it sweep up. Not knowing how to control when I want to be very expressive, I’ll do that through painting.

When I’m having a hard time with forms, I’ll move to doing clay work. Because the frustration is that I’ll never be good at it. I’ve been doing this a while—it’s never good. It’d be nice if someone laughed when you’re doing this. I hope you keep that in, because it’s my real personality.

Another thing I was working on—the one I’m most proud of—is this bat. Oops—constantly dropping stuff. Okay. This is the one I’m most proud of.

I started working on this after a trip to Seattle. It was a beautiful experience. I felt very inspired by the person I was with. We walked on the beach, and watching the water and the waves move—I picked up on something. This one really feels like the most balanced expression of my architectural style.

This is long-term planning for doing a bigger mural. I keep skin tones and everything tied to land and water, because we always go back to what we build on top of.

So these two—this one, and then this one—were the two I’m most proud of from my experience here.