I have my feet in multiple worlds: the arts, new media, teaching, business, spiritual journeying... I have taken the path less traveled and am still enjoying the view! A former New Yorker now living “in the country,” I could not be more happy to see the beauty of the natural world unfold on a daily basis. It never fails to take my breath away. I am also delighted to be married to a wonderful husband, the writer Mark Onspaugh. We have two silly cats.
My two newest projects include the August 2009 launch of a new website devoted to my business services www.crockettcreative.com/ and a locally oriented food and culture website I have been developing behind the scenes ever since we moved to SLO county five years ago. The site www.slocavore.com/ will be launching in late October.
Community building has taken a stronger and stronger role in my recent activities. I am co-authoring several book projects focused on creative community building tools, and developing a movement class called "Open Body" which fosters intimacy and connection within groups. It is my belief that when we create sacred space and hold a place for each and every voice to be heard, transformation takes place, with new bonds formed as we allow everyone a place of respect, witness and honor. I recently spoke at the Institute of Philosophy and the Arts in Pasadena about the power of spirit and community, with special guest and spiritual teacher Hua Anwa. I plan to offer some podcast excerpts of that event soon.
As for my background as an artist/theorist and educator, I have recently taught classes on 3D theory at New York's School of Visual Arts and the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena. Locally, I taught about the importance of art and beauty for the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute. Not content to only speak and present on the art of others, I am now presenting my own multi-media arts project “SuperBrattyFlowerPower” which I have been developing since 2005. "SuperBrattyFlowerPower" explores the interdimensional travelers known as the SuperBratties, creatures on a mission to discover how to be human. The story of their unfolding adventures includes clowning and sacred theater, painting, sculpture, animation and installation work.
My digital artwork has been included in exhibitions at the Beall Center for Art and Technology, the Bremen Kunsthalle and New York University, and in 2001, I received a prestigious New York Foundation for the Arts grant for my virtual world “Tobey Crockett’s Wild Frontier” (TCWF) which has been featured in talks at Siggraph, the Refresh conference at Banff, The Society for Cinema and Media Studies and numerous universities. I strongly encourage you to watch the mini documentary I made that explains that project.
I have been the recipient of several grants, fellowships and scholarships from the University of California and a private foundation, and in 2006 I received my doctorate in Visual Studies from UC Irvine. I received my Master's Degree in Critical Theory from the Art Center College of Design in 2000, where I worked closely with Dr. Michael Heim. My B.A. is from Barnard College, in Art History with departmental honors for my thesis on "Street Art in New York in 1983.”