Wood, Words, And Whimsy

Minerva’s newly spruced-up Market Street Art Spot will present “Wood, Words and Whimsy”, the artwork of three generations of the Jim and Susan Crawford Family. Most of the Crawfords live on or near the family farm in Paris Township, Minerva.

The opening reception at the Market Street Art Spot at 217 North Market Street in Minerva, Ohio is from 5 to 9pm Friday, November 8 from 5 to 9pm. Jim Crawford, the patriarch of the Crawford family, is a self taught cabinet-maker and woodworker who does extensive reading and video research before each woodworking project. Many of his cabinets decorate the 19th Century farmhouse that Jimand Susan live in.

Susan Crawford, the matriarch of the Crawford clan, is a painter, illustrator, calligrapher and Resident Artist at the Market Street Art Spot. She helped design many of the furniture pieces that Jim created and she enjoys bringing her love of literature and design into her artwork. The last several years she has often utilized wood left over from other projects in her illustrative pieces.

Older son Ben Crawford owns Red Barn Home Furnishings and is a full time furniture designer and craftsman working out of his carpentry shop in the family barn on the Crawford homestead. He is also a sawyer and certified forestry consultant. His furniture is shown and marketed worldwide.

Youngest son Evan Crawford is a self taught creative woodworker who sculpts his work based on what he envisions in the wood. He creates decorative wood pieces and furniture as well.

Susan and Jim’s grandchildren, Maddie (age 12), Dan (age 8), and Jack (age 7) also create decorative work and several of their art pieces have been framed to display in this show.

Gotschall-Hutchison Funeral Home will sponsor the November, 2019 opening reception and entertainment. This is the 106th consecutive featured artist opening on second Friday at the Market Street Art Spot. The acoustic group “One String Short” from Alliance will provide live music and vocals.

In addition to the Crawford Family’s artwork in the Front Gallery, the Art Spot will feature the works of the Art Spot’s other Resident Artists, Anna Rather (printmaker, painter), Michelle Mulligan ( oil painter), Laura Donnelly (potter, painter), Marty Chapman (woodturner), and Judith Singer (raku potter).

For more than eight years, The Art Spot has showcased the work of its Resident Artists and featured local artists as well as 30 to 35 Display Artists from across Ohio, West Virginia, Pennsylvania and New York.