For some reason, I have resisted showing my work in progress, because well, because it is not complete. But these are different, they insist on revealing themselves now. Except for the last one in this group, it is unlikely that there will be revising, though they will change as they are glued on a larger scale.

What is a work on paper? Is it a drawing, a collage, or something else? I don’t know. The definition of a drawing used to be anything one can do on paper. My work on paper is somewhere in between a drawing, a painting on paper, a paper cut out, or a collage. I call them collages but they do not fit the strict definition of one, different things glued to a surface, sometimes paper.

Mostly, I work on paper because I have worked on paper since childhood. For a long time, I worked on paper because I did not have a studio big enough to paint in. Now that I do, I still work on paper primarily because if I didn’t I would miss it a lot. The world would not feel right. These recent works begin with a piece I made at the Crow Barn in central Ohio, a 19th century timber frame barn that my aunt and uncle moved to their property and restored for use as a work shop for artists who came from around the world to learn more about contemporary quilt art.

In 2006, I spent most of a summer working at the barn as a guest artist, working with paper, mostly painting. I was teaching in the Detroit Public Schools, and the time spent at the barn was my summer vacation and an invitation to explore and follow my imagination. Growing up in a family where art was an important activity, I was lucky to have models of what artists did and encouragement to follow their example.

Peter Crow #7, acrylic, cut paper, 20″ x 19″, 2026

All works copyright, Peter Crow, 2026.