Crystal Hartman (b. April 9, 1983, Durango Colorado, USA) grew up behind a jeweler’s bench at the mouth of a canyon in southwest Colorado. She began carving wax, cutting stones, and forming metal as a young child. After apprenticing with artist Stanton Englehart, she earned her BFA from the University of Colorado at Boulder. Recipient of a UROP grant for academic research on Femininity in Latin America, she cultivated a reverence for community and conversation. Hartman filmed professional and amateur skateboarding in Spain (2005-7), studied site specific craft in Thailand (2008), and founded/directed Durango Open Studio (2009-11, Durango, CO.) In 2011, the artist received the Merwin Altfeld Memorial Award for Storytelling in the Arts from the National Watercolor Association. Her artwork has exhibited at the Center for Contemporary Arts Barcelona, Spain, the National Palace of Culture, Sofia Bulgaria, the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art, Boulder CO, the Arvada Center for the Arts and Humanities, Arvada CO, and the Denver International Airport, Denver CO USA among others. Her work can be found globally in arts and literary publications, as album art through independent labels, and book covers from Oxford University Press, London, and A5 Publishing, Madrid. Her sculptural jewelry designs, carved of sustainably-harvested beeswax and ethically cast in fine metals, have been featured in Art Jewelry Magazine, and exhibited at locations such as the Lilstreet Art Gallery, Chicago IL, Kathleen Sommers, San Antonio TX, and through the Society of North American Goldsmiths. Hartman currently lives and works in Urbana Illinois.

May 18th, 2024 Join me and learn The Magic of Light and Cyanotype Photography, a class at Allerton Park and Retreat Center

Member of the Society of North American Goldsmiths

@CrystalHartmanArt

ARTIST STATEMENT

Through an intimate practice of layering, my artwork borrows from traditional practices in drawing, book-making, and metal-smithing to create sculptural and process-based renderings of our shared relationship with the environment. I work in pencil, gouache, wax and recycled metals to create images and sculptures reimagining the natural world into a story where non-human life reigns. Inclined toward the act of gathering and maximization, I build the stories of where and who we are by piling line on top of line in sustainably havested beeswax. And then, I carve it all down, new layers obscure the details of the old, like water moving up the shoreline, stories built through botanical, entomological, and mammalian forms are cut down leaving small hints of what was there before while creating open spaces in which we can breathe. A chair left behind by a loved one sits as a shadow in an open field. Thick swarms of bees float suspended in dripping honey on a series of handmade paper scrolls. Large piles of recycled bronze snakes are sent out globally as reminders of our individual and collective wholeness, of our ability to recreate ourselves in each moment. Much of my current artwork is actualized by a call to awareness and an investigation into dichotomies: light and shadow, inside and outside, living ice and parched desert. Pushing back against what feels easy, we find that things are not always as they seem. It is in this place that I seek to call out deeper collective needs and desires and offer a beautiful story of life and possibility. 

JEWELRY MAKING PROCESS

Through the lost wax carving and casting process I create elegant, strong, earthy stand-alone pieces and stackable stories. From beginning design to completion, each piece may take several weeks to months to finish, and is always tested for comfort and wearability as well as quality and character.  

Consciously living in reciprocity with the earth and kindness are at the core of my values and practices, I am committed ever to listening, learning, growing, and expanding community.

I donate quarterly. Currently donating to Wilderness Workshop, Jane Goodall’s Roots and Shoots, and the National Resource Defense Fund. Please be in touch if your organization would like to be considered for a donation.

MATERIALS

Carved primarily with local, sustainably-harvested beeswax.

Cast with reclaimed sterling silver, gold, and ancient bronze.

Sourced Stones are natural, post consumer, dead stock, conflict free and/ or mined and cut here in the USA.  Most of the turquoise that I work with has been cut by my father or brother in Durango Colorado. 

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Custom pieces, yes! Many of my pieces are customizable and can be made to order in another size. If you are interested in a one of a kind custom design, contact info@crystalhartman.com

ART & JEWELRY AVAILABLE AT THESE LOCATIONS

COLORADO

Colorado Springs . Revolution Jewelry Works, 5928 Stetson Hills Blvd #110

Denver . Studio Colfax, 2418 E Colfax Ave

Durango . Lively, 809 Main Ave.

Durango . Studio &, 1027 Main Ave.

Silverton . K& C Traders, 1152 Greene St.

Telluride . Gold Mountain Gallery, 135 West Colorado Ave.

ILLINOIS

Chicago . Jackson Junge Gallery, 1389 N Milwaukee Ave.

Urbana . Bohemia, 135 West Main St.

IOWA

Des Moines Art Center . 4700 Grand Avenue, Des Moines

MONTANA

Whitefish . Going to the Sun Gallery, 137 Central Ave.

TEXAS

Galveston . Tippy Toes, 212 Kempner St

WASHINGTON

Seattle . hitchcock Madrona, 1406 34th Ave.

FIND ME ONLINE

Studio & Gallery . www.anddurango.com

Durango Silver Company . www.durangosilver.com

Instagram for brand new beauties… @CrystalHartmanArt

+ Hidden Gallery of Secret Art, Online Exhibition with Hidden Letters Film, hiddenlettersfilm.com