Crystal Bretschger

Crystal Bretschger was born in Princeton, NJ youngest of three girls. Crystal always marched to beat of her own drum. Growing up Crystal’s mother was always encouraging her creative freedom, one of the ways was by letting Crystal dress herself. In kindergarten she would often wear her father’s clothing to school and he was not a small man. She was cause for hysterics when visiting her grandmother because of her unkempt appearance. That did not stop her from expressing herself in her own way whether it was via clothing or class projects. In her grade school English class she was assigned to do a book report. Crystal, with her mother’s help, took this as an opportunity to dress up as the main character and retell the events of the book in the protagonist’s words. This costume entailed pinning two 3-foot wings, made up of hundreds individual paper feathers glued to cardboard, on to a denim vest.

Her creativity throughout her high school years won her a spot at the prestigious art school, Parsons School of Design. She graduated from Parsons in May of 2005 with Honors from the Illustration Department. Crystal’s senior year her artwork was chosen by the Society of Illustrators “Student Scholarship Competition” to be shown at their exhibit space in Mid-town Manhattan. Her senior thesis work was exhibited at the Sheila Aaronson Gallery, which could be viewed by passers by on 5th avenue. Since graduation she has had a number of shows in restaurants, cafes, group and solo shows in galleries, and has been selected for both international and national juried exhibitions. Crystal continues creating artwork and getting inspiration from music, books, and other artists.

List of works present in this website