why am I here?

Love is not a feeling- it is a series of actions. I engage in my practice with this belief: in artmaking, specifically in the context of racial representation, the work must exist as an active expression of love for the greater community, and in turn our holistic environment.

My name is Julie Bernadeth Crumb and I am a queer, first-generation Filipino-American artist. I was raised in a small seaside town called Pagadian City, a province of Zamboanga del Sur, Philippines. My youth was a household of 8-10 multi-generational members, all of whom embodied the philosophy of reciprocity and communal care. I mention the importance of reciprocity as a personal philosophy because I find there are similar themes in the work I employ myself to do and the art I create. I’ve found a sense of belonging through years of public service, community building, arts-nonprofit education, and exhibiting work as an act of place-making for my people.

My formal education in public art fabrication, sculpture, printmaking, and ceramics has led to the making of objects centered on preserving cultural memory, decolonization in the sociopolitical and religious sense, and engaging in a process that prioritizes intuitive joy. I use these objects for introspective dialogue so that my viewers will possess the tools to consider their societal roles, forgotten histories, practical knowledge, and all the domains that exist outside of their current positionality.

All of this encapsulates what I like to call “love work.” I do this work because I believe in something greater than my rugged individualism. I do this work to boldly express my desire for a sustainable future. I do this work so that one day I may become a great ancestor.