Get to Know Our Window Installation Artist!

If you’ve been to the Co-op recently, you’ve probably noticed our newest window art installation. Those bold blueberries were created by Ceiba Crow, a 14-year-old entrepreneur and artist based in Portland, Maine.

Ceiba has always felt a strong pull towards artistic pursuits, and has experimented with many different styles and materials including painting, sketching, photography, and jewelry making. She’s been homeschooled her entire life, which has provided her with the ideal environment to explore art and teach herself how to run her business, Euphoria Moon, which she opened in 2017.

“I’ve had a lot of time and space to do what I’ve wanted to do. Whatever I want to get into making, I just do,” Ceiba said.

To create the berries for the Co-op’s installation, Ceiba shaped paper mâché around inflated balloons. Once dry, she painted them and added leaf adornments.

You wouldn’t be able to tell by looking at the finished installation, but Ceiba had concerns during the construction process that her method wouldn’t be successful. However, she was able to persevere through her doubts when the blueberry building became a family effort. Ceiba’s grandmother and father provided guidance and encouragement, and Ceiba received special help from her sister, Inola, and her brother, Kai, to complete the project.

Although Ceiba had prior experience with installation from assisting with the Sacred and Profane festival, this was her first large scale installation.

Ceiba will allow inspiration and opportunity to guide her immediate future pursuits, but her ultimate dream is to open a fusion thrift and art store and allow other aspiring small business owners to manage sections of it.

Ceiba wants to encourage other young artists to keep creating and acting on their passions, especially when they feel discouraged.

“There’s no such thing as bad art,” Ceiba said. “You can be bad at a certain type of art or copying a style, but ‘good’ is always an opinion. Beauty is always in the eye of the beholder.”

Find Ceiba Crow and her work on Instagram @euphoria.moon and in her Etsy shop: EuphoriaMoonCrafts