Shirley Crutchfield’s Gilded Second Act

An engineer by training, Chicago-based artist Shirley Yang Crutchfield worked in tech at organizations such as Sony, Fox and Amazon before pivoting to the arts. “I’ve always wanted to be an artist, and I painted as long as I could as a child, but I stopped doing that because of pursuits in ‘accomplishments;’ I felt that I had to prove myself, and everything goes through that,” she told Observer. After five big tech experiences, Crutchfield founded her company, Muses, a platform that connects creators and entrepreneurs, enabling them to thrive together.

“I was 8 months pregnant with my first human child in addition to my tech child,” she quipped. As the need for support and infrastructure became increasingly critical, Crutchfield sold her startup to a blockchain company in Silicon Valley. “I signed the deal on my delivery bed, so I always joke that I delivered both babies at the same time.”

Crutchfield decided to leave the tech world and become a professional artist after becoming a mother of two. “There was a sense of having an identity crisis,” she admitted. After being so career-driven and thriving on accomplishments for almost two decades, the sudden shock of becoming a stay-at-home mom posed an unexpected crisis—an experience shared by many women. Crutchfield quickly found the everyday life of being in pajamas, nursing and dropping off kids to be overly consuming: “I started questioning: After all of my education and all of my hard work, is this the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow?” In her search for satisfaction and a re-exploration of identity, she discovered art as a therapeutic way to regain her sense of self and began painting in the early mornings and late evenings, when she could take a break from her parenting duties.

Her paintings have a common theme and motif: powerful women in gold. They turn impressive women—from the ones in her life such as friends and other people she respects to queens and mythological figures—into artworks that acknowledge the hard work women do in their lives. “I want my collectors and viewers to see my art as mirrors of themselves, so that they could be constant reminders of their brilliance and their true identity, no matter what stage in life they’re in. Even if you’re a stay-at-home mom in your pyjamas going crazy all day, you can still remember who you are inside.”

Gold is the most prominent color and the most prominent material in Crutchfield’s works. It is a material that was historically, from the Egyptians to at least the medieval and Byzantine periods, reserved for deities, gods and people deserving of worship. “The ladies I gild in gold are who I respect and think should be the deities of our day,” Crutchfield explained.

Gilding is an incredibly labor-intensive process that requires extreme attention to detail. Mastering the techniques also involves a steep learning curve, especially for Crutchfield, who is mostly self-taught. She deliberately chose the tricky material and was determined to master it. “I wanted something with a high bar to entry to train my discipline—perhaps part of it is because of my Asian roots that value practicing discipline.” Gold also resonates with her personal taste, as she has adored the design of Versailles and paintings by Gustav Klimt since a young age.

Perhaps due to her tech training, Crutchfield’s process of learning gilding was one of reverse engineering rather than a typical pathway to craftsmanship. She first experimented with the process on her own through trial and error. “I used the gesso from stores, but I wasn’t able to make gold shiny. Then I started Googling how to make gold shiny and found the term burnish. I continued to search for how to burnish and discovered the technique of gilding.” After realizing that gilding cannot be learned through simple YouTube videos, Crutchfield reached out to a few gilding masters around the world to learn oil gilding and water gilding, mostly through Zoom. It took her at least two months to make the gold adhere. She believes that the secret to successful gilding lies in the right mix of formula—one that isn’t sold in stores. Commercial gesso has a very different recipe, and rabbit skin glue expires every two weeks, which means she has to make the materials in her studio. “I’m not allowed to tell people how to do these techniques, which is like a code of conduct. It’s great that a lot of it is still word of mouth.”

But Crutchfield did share some of the details of gold gilding with Observer. Instead of canvas, it begins with birch wood panels, over which a layer of rabbit skin glue and cheesecloth is applied to prevent cracking. After drying overnight, handmade gesso is applied with distilled water and rabbit skin glue. On top of that, she applies clay as the base for the gold, which provides a richer and more diverse color effect. While Crutchfield mostly uses 24-karat gold, some of her works are done in moon gold, rose gold and white gold, which makes viewing her art “almost like going to a jewelery shop and shopping for gold,” she said. Gold also requires very specific working conditions: if the heater or air conditioner goes on, the airflow would disrupt the gold leaves while gilding. “Every time the wind comes, I’ll joke that it’s eight dollars flying away. I use Manetti Gold from Florence, which is very expensive, and I’ll never tell my husband how much it costs,” she joked. Every painting is a time-consuming and intricate learning process that takes at least a few weeks. For her, it’s not about speed but about perfection and connection.

Crutchfield usually paints in early mornings and late nights when the kids are asleep. That’s her time to immerse herself in the details of craft. “When I get lost in the details, it’s so therapeutic. It’s not the fastest way to produce work, but it calms my nervous system and makes me realigned with myself.” Her children are sometimes also involved in her practice: they learned how to make raw materials for gold gilding with her and have tried mixing chalk with glue and distilled water.

Many of Crutchfield’s works celebrate the incredible women in her life. Crutchfield has a unique way of creating portraits for the people she loves: she starts by talking to the sitter on the phone for hours and asking a list of detailed questions, even if she has known them for years: What lights you up? What are your non-negotiables? What are some shapes that you identify with? What’s important to you? What are you trying to shed in life? From there, she creates symbols, shapes and brushstrokes inspired by these conversations to match who she thinks the sitters are inside. “I think that’s because I’m a type A tech person who needs a list of ‘product requirements’ to be answered,” she joked.

Among those portraits, one is for Dr. Kiara King, an obstetrician-gynecologist serving the South Side of Chicago. “I’ve always admired her,” Crutchfield said, “and she was the first person I told I was pregnant with my first child, before even my husband.” In the portrait, the magnolia flower in the background symbolizes abundance and serves as a tribute to Dr. King’s contributions to the communities of Chicago’s South Side. Crutchfield decided to put her in pink to highlight the soft, feminine, girly core inside her, even though she wears bold colors like red and green. When the work was revealed to Dr. King, she told Crutchfield in surprise that the pink dress showed a hidden side of her that she hadn’t revisited for a while. As an artist, Crutchfield aims for the portraits to reveal parts of the sitters that they themselves might have already forgotten, and for them to live longer than merely the present moment. Her collectors see themselves and identify with the elegant, poised, powerful women in the paintings.

Having left the tech industry, Crutchfield continues to use digital tools for artistic creation. Her creative process begins by brainstorming ideas, perhaps by researching Greek mythological figures, and seeking inspiration on websites like Pinterest. Then she uses tools like Photoshop or Pixelmator to collage the iconography into shapes for her first draft. Having played a critical role in launching the Audible iOS apps in Europe, Crutchfield continues to get inspiration from podcasts, with The Rest is History being one of her favorites. Her inspiration to paint female rulers came from an episode of The Rest is History on Queen Elizabeth I. Unlike the traditional triumvirate formed by Julius Caesar, Pompey and Crassus, Crutchfield decided to create a triumvirate for women. Her Queen’s Triumvirate features Elizabeth I, Queen Zenobia and Empress Wu Zetian, three of the most powerful women in history. Having always adored strong warrior queens, she painted a portrait of the Greek goddess Athena. Her artworks serve as testaments and documentation of women’s power and resilience, particularly when facing various societal expectations and gendered stereotypes. “All of these ladies went through the same thing, but they still rise up. They still are glamorous, while it took so much for them to become on top,” she said.

“I’ve always identified with gold. It’ll be really hard for me to imagine getting sick of it, unless I can’t afford the material anymore,” Crutchfield answered when asked if she’s going to create works in other mediums. Gold changes colors under the sun at night, and to her, nothing seems more tantalizing and precious. The precious material makes her become more serious about her practice and respect the materials more.

“I want to be known as the artist who paints iconic women,” she stated. “I want to be the artist people commission for respected women, almost like Amy Sherald’s portrait of Michelle Obama.” Regarding whether she calls her works feminist art, Crutchfield explained, “Everyone should be a feminist. In our current climate, when you say that, people put additional labels on you. I don’t want to turn away people just because of misconceptions or additional labels. I would just call my art: I celebrate women. I elevate women.” Crutchfield describes the decision of being an artist as “either passion or privilege,” and that she is privileged to take time and build connections with the ladies she paints. Nonetheless, she encourages people to try art even if they don’t want to be an artist. “You can see what mediums you pick, and if you choose abstract or realism. It’ll help you learn so much about yourself, and self-discovery is everything.”

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