Neal Crosbie

Neal Crosbie was born in San Francisco in 1951. He is a painter, a cartoonist, a poet and a musician who “has a black belt in tea and a masters degree in outer space” (cf Crosbie) and introduces humour in the gravitas of the painting as well as the spontaneity of drawings.

In 1960-62 Neal Crosbie studied painting at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, in 1967-70 he studied with John Kaneko in Sacramento, especially pen and ink, in 1970 he studied painting with Ralph Goings in Sacramento, and in 1970-71 he studied with Gary Pruner at American River College.

His icon, coyote-man, drawn from his Shoshone background turns up everywhere in his works. He walks around in landscapes where sometimes the only visible sign is the wind in a pine tree. He thinks aloud, talks, declaims, makes fun at himself,or at the whole universe! He is somewhat wise, somewhat Buddhist, sometimes kranky always a poet.

Unique among his contemporaries, Neal Crosbie acts on canvas, paper or walls as a stand up comedian. His work is an invitation to profundity in a burst of exuberant colors and energies.