A Voice in the Vista

Art Professor's Work Earns National Prize

"You've got to find your own voice. That's what art is all about," says art professor Jim Crable, remembering the advice of one his former professors. Crable has found his voice in the art form of photomontage. His lates, Subway: Times Square, NY, NY, won first prize at the Second Annual National All-Media Exhibition at the Smithsonian Institute's Touchstone Gallery, the largest cooperative gallery in Washington, D.C.

Much or Crable's work includes sidewalks, doorways, stairways and escalators. For his latest piece, he photographed people descending the stairs of a subway entrance. To turn his many photographs into a single art piece, Crable trims each photo on a grid to precise, equal measurements and places them by hand into an arrangement. His work has earned him many awards, including the National Endowment for the Arts Artist's Fellowship, the Virginia Prize in Photography and the Virginia Commission for the Arts award.

Crable says that hsi work has been influenced by many artists from Andy Warhol to 19th-century photograph Edweard Muybridge. A professor told him, "A lot of art is technically proficient but has nothing original to say."

"That's why finding your own voice is so important," says Crable.