Current
Owens + Crawley, 2023
Owens + Crawley were selected through a nationwide call for artists to create an original artwork for the Albany Country Courthouse North Entrance renovation. A selection committee composed of community members, Courthouse employees, and artists selected the duo of Luke Crawley and Quincy Owens in summer 2021.
The installation is two parts: a hanging sculpture and a painting. The artist team was inspired by the Laramie watershed.
Commissioned by Albany County. Project administration by Laramie Public Art Coalition.
About the artwork:
Based on lung volume and the size of oxygen molecules, with every breath, we breathe in at least one oxygen molecule that has been breathed in by every living thing on Earth. It takes roughly 6 years for oxygen molecules to become evenly dispersed throughout Earth's atmosphere.
We are all connected.
This connection extends beyond the breath to the waterways that are essential to civilization. Local water sources are part of a much larger watershed system. What we do to our water here flows on to affect countless others.
Current could be a flowing river with rocks or boulders in the riverbed, or abstracted particles flowing in the air we breathe. The name itself, Current, speaks not only to the physical currents of air and water, but also to time.
We must be aware of our connection to nature and humanity at this present moment.
The painting in the stairway gains inspiration from the larger watershed of the Laramie River.
About the artists:
Quincy Owens is a husband and father of five children who loves to open his studio door everyday to make something out of nothing. He graduated from the University of Indianapolis and lives in Indianapolis where he works as a full time artist.
Luke Crawley is a science and mathematics teacher at University High School in Carmel, Indiana. He is the father of two boys who constantly model the joy found in authentic scientific exploration and artistic creation, which Luke tries to capture in his scientific and artistic endeavors.
Together, they create work that glorifies, yet points out the flaws and frailty that are humanity.