Bio

Chrystal has been drawing animals forever, and enjoys being outdoors in all weather and seasons with her own animals, Reilly and Sage the dogs. From them and their canine friends, and a lot of reading, she has developed a strong sense of dog motion and physical expression, which she brings to her dog art projects. Over the years, Chrystal has shown prints, artists books and drawings in galleries at Boston-area Universities (including an interesting juried show at Tufts in 2000 "Monsters in Contemporary Art" and a solo show in a little basement gallery at Harvard.) 

Her work was well-received in the aisles of a very creative Cambridge Food Co-op where she was employed as a sign maker, drawing animals to make the cheese case and cereal aisles more fun. She learned the ins and outs of printing and embroidery at a uniform company, which informs her logo work today with awareness of designing work that will produce to its best effectiveness across all applications. People have enjoyed Chrystal's work on grocery store bags, sled dog mushing equipment trucks and the shirts of a well travelled Celtic band, but she possibly enjoyed most the night the bears she drew for then-Providence Bruins goalie Tim Thomas' mask appeared on tv as he took the ice in relief of Andrew Raycroft in the NHL one cold January night in 2007.

A competitive hockey goalie herself, Chrystal enjoys trekking around the fields and forests in New England with her family and the dogs. Chrystal attended Boston University School for the Arts for one year, where she learned to draw people and boxes from life really really well. She got her BFA from Massachusetts College of Art where she learned that there is lots more to artmaking than life drawing, and her post graduate work at MassArt taught her why she should make art at all and about what, which confirmed what she knew when she was very young anyway.

Chrystal has been drawing animals for illustrations and logos since 1993. In all media, her work has action, life and a powerful yet accessible quality of solid design, natural appeal and a range of personality from fun to ferocious. She has been freelancing for the last nine years, specializing in bold creatures for sports and adventurous businesses. End uses for Chrystal's animals have been on hockey team uniforms, promotional materials and merchandise from youth to college teams in the US, Canada, UK and Germany, on retail sports equipment, in television advertisements, corporate ID, and printed materials for conservation and wildlife organizations.