Rod Crossman Describing What Words Cannot With Art

God has given Professor Rod Crossman a gift and a joy for expressing what words cannot and for teaching his skill to his art students. On any given day on the Indiana Wesleyan University campus you can see him teaching classes in the Beard Arts Center. On this autumn day Professor Crossman is in his afternoon painting one studio art class on the second floor of the art center, here we will drop in on him as he begins class.

"Art is the thing that expresses what there are no words for", says Professor Crossman, as he sits back in his chair. The class listens intently as he puts a few more strokes down on the canvas. The room is quite drab and empty except for a few canvases and easels distributed throughout it. A fly annoyingly buzzes around the room. At one end is a group of students scattered around a single easel. Sitting next to this easel is Professor Crossman. He is wearing a button-down shirt and jeans. His face is cheerful and the skin covering it is beginning to show the wrinkles of time creeping through. He has dark eyes covered by glasses and he has a steady deep voice. His large hands move across the canvas in long quick strokes as he paints and talks.

Professor Crossman started out in very humble beginnings. He was raised in upstate New York and originally came to Marion College as a psychology major. "I had such a strong interest", he says, speaking of his artistic beginnings. Because of that interest he decided to take a drawing class. He did extremely well in his first art class and so he took another and from there it snowballed. "At that time there was no specific Art major so it was fairly easy for me to take these classes". He soon changed his major to one of more creative studies and by time he graduated he had a two year scholarship to go and study in Florence, Italy. After receiving his Masters of Fine Arts, he moved back to the United States where he was married and the newlyweds moved to central Indiana.

Professor Crossman will tell you that one of the major points in his artistic career came during his time working on his graduate studies in Italy. He was looking at the Caravaggio painting of the "Conversion of Paul", when he realized that he was being called by God to use art as his career. "I believe God wants you to have a joy in your work and he won't give you a love and a talent for no reason", says Professor Crossman. It's evident to everyone who has ever met Professor Crossman that he has a true joy for teaching and truly wants to use it as a ministry not just as a job.

Professor Crossman slides his glasses up onto his head as he sits back and looks at his painting. The class also looks a little closer at his painting as if to see what he sees. His glasses lose their grip from his gray thinning hair and clatter to the floor startling everyone except Professor Crossman himself. He stoops and picks them up and begins painting again. The room returns to silence except for the fly buzzing.

Professor Crossman has been teaching art classes in this method since he finished his Masters Degree over thirty years ago. Since that time he has taught art classes for all but seven years, when he took a hiatus from teaching and concentrated fully on doing only studio work as well as showing and selling his work in galleries. He has taught some high school art but the majority of his teaching has been done at his alma mater, Marion College, now known as Indiana Wesleyan University. Professor Crossman now solely heads up and teaches painting but over his career he has taught drawing, printmaking, design, and sculpture.

Professor Crossman now leans forward with a clatter and puts his brush in a jar of lacquer thinner signaling the students that the class is over. Professor Crossman stays in the room until everyone leaves answering any questions that a student might have while cleaning his brushes at the same time. After class he may go down to his office to work on his website and blog, Crossmanart.com, or he may go meet with a student to discuss their current artwork over coffee. Instead of this he may work on a different painting or he may get in contact with someone regarding his next show or gallery opening. Professor Crossman has had his work displayed in hundreds of shows across the country and his work is displayed in many museums including the Smithsonian National Museum and the Chicago Art Institute. His work has been published in over one-hundred magazines and periodicals and his paintings are always in high demand for collectors and art enthusiasts. It is not uncommon for a seven-hundred and fifty edition of a Crossman painting to be sold out in a short period of time.

Professor Crossman's calling in life has been clearly brought out by the artistic skills that God has given him. In his life he has been a major asset and blessing to Indiana Wesleyan University, hundred's of students, and art enthusiasts worldwide. Most of his students greatly look up to him and can only hope to attain the prestige and skill that he has reached over his long and successful career. Professor Crossman has been creating artwork that says what words cannot describe and through this legacy in art he will continue to bless and spread his joy to others through his artwork long after his life here on earth is done.