Professor Crystal Scriber
Professor Crystal Scriber joined the college in 1977 and had been a mentor and tenured full professor with the Utica Unit of Empire State College. Her main areas of educational interest were in the fine arts and literature. She held a B.S. from SUNY New Paltz, thirty graduate hours in literature from Penn State University and an M.F.A. in Fine Arts from Syracuse University.
Professor Scriber worked professionally in photography, painting, and mixed media. Her work involved a series of related images that focused on organic forms examined at close range in order to divorce them from representation and to emphasize composition, space, and sensuousness of color and texture. Ambiguous levels of reality appear within the photographs – real floral forms that do not look real and photographs of real floral forms placed on photographs that are then photographed again.
Her work had been shown nationwide. She had photographs in two national shows juried by Susan Kismaric, curator of photography at theNew York Museum of Modern Art. In addition, Professor Scriber published articles on adult education and made presentations on this topic at national conferences. Her many and varied interests included house design and building, horseback riding, and attempts at dog training. She lived a quiet and full life in a rural setting where she could find ample subjects for her nature photography.
Professor Scriber enjoyed great success with her art students, many of whom have gone on to pursue their talents professionally.