About Connie Wilkerson-Arp

I love telling stories. 

Like most talkative girls from New Jersey, my mouth is always getting away from me, unleashing stories that may be only part-true, but entirely heartfelt. Even more important than my passion for telling stories is my lifelong need to lose myself in the stories of the great tale-tellers. People like C. S. Lewis, J. K. Rowling, J. D. Salinger, Richard Adams, Robert Frost, Edgar Allen Poe, George Lucas… these people gave my imagination the backyard in which it could infinitely play. 

And from that mentality, my love of art was born. To me, painting is a way to create worlds not only for my own mind to explore, but to stimulate and intrigue the minds of others. I have painted many things since I first picked up a brush at age three, but there will never be anything I’ll love to create more than a story. Whether it be told in a painting of a dusty diner, a lonely cemetery or an alien landscape, stories will always be where my brush goes when I look deep inside myself. 

And so years ago I was able to devise a new way to more deeply immerse myself and others in the stories my art was telling. I call it “Audio Artwork”. Each of my pieces are accompanied by a multi-layered “sound environment” that I have edited out of dozens of individual isolated sounds. Whether it be the howling of the wind, a piece of music, or the sizzling of a deep fryer- these noises are meant to draw the viewer inward, so they’re not merely seeing my painting- but experiencing it.

When hanging in a home these pieces are equipped with a tiny speaker mounted behind the canvas that can play the soundtrack with the simple push of a button, while in the gallery these sounds can be heard via the wireless headphones and when viewed online, all you need to do is click a link to watch a video to see the artwork while experiencing the sounds. 

I truly hope something in my portfolio speaks to you. I believe artists feel most successful when they not only find themselves in their work, but help others find something within themselves as well. From the earliest cave paintings, art has been a way to tell a story. I hope my stories say something worth while, and that when all is said and done, the creations of Crooked Crow Studio is art that makes you wonder.