I grew up in a small town in Southwestern Michigan, right on Lake Michigan. It was—
and is—a beautiful part of the country.
Growing up there was growing up in a big place. Great tremendous thunderstorms coming across the lake in the spring. Sand dunes like dinosaurs, mountains of snow in the winter and beautiful idylic summers with star filled nights. A cool place to grow up, it was a world of big pictures. And later going to college in Michigan, it was at a time when it seemed all the painters were making big pictures. We all looked to Rothko, Pollock, Olitski, Frankenthaler, Diebenkorn. I still do.

Though I never intend to imitate their work their influences in my work are obvious to anyone who is familiar with their work. Even now if working at a smaller scale I still try to get a sense of a big picture. Big forms in space. Big color. I always start with color. A formal problem, a color key, or just a current favorite. I work abstract because it just gives a painter more possibilities. After starting with color I follow the painting and let it take its own life. It can become a color chord, a place I've visited, or maybe a place I would like to go. But there aren't hidden messages or literal meanings. They're paintings, a result of the process of my love of color and forms.

Craig lives in Overland Park where he is
an Associate Professor in the Graphic Design Department at Johnson County Community College.