Biography
Crystal Gasser (she/her) grew up in two places: along the Northern California coast near the redwood forest and in the mountains of southern Oregon. She has always had a love for nature and has been a seeker most of her life. She has explored a relationship with God through different sects of Christianity and has even found connection through meditation and yoga. She formed a strong bond with her former high school teacher, Kirsten Fountain, when she was eighteen. Kirsten had become a mother figure and, throughout the years, a sister and a best friend.
Crystal moved to Eugene, Oregon, for ten years after graduating high school in 2010 while pursuing an education. In those ten years, she learned so much about herself. She traveled the world, found and lost love, worked, created, faced mental-health struggles, and left a toxic relationship.
Today Crystal resides back home in southern Oregon, where she is currently adapting to the transition of facing her roots once again and reclaiming all the parts of herself she left behind so many years ago. This project has been one way for her to continue that work. She has come to Chapter Thirty-One of her life.
Her story continues…
Artist Statement
I first learned to self-soothe through the process of writing. I didn’t have many methods of coping but the two things that kept me intact would likely be my love for nature and writing. I have a very early memory of rummaging through my grandmother’s entertainment center. I was searching for a “hip” CD that I could play in my boom box. I came across a CD with a young woman on it. She had a round face and the side of her eyes turned slightly downward like mine. It read Pieces of You. It was Jewel Kilcher. I knew nothing of her music, but I took that CD to my room, put it in my red boom box and pressed play. It would be safe to say that from that day forward, my life was influenced in a much deeper and more meaningful way. I began to look at things in my life more mystically and poetically.
I grew up surrounded by nature, and even amidst the chaos within the walls of my home I had a greater peace that always awaited me outside. Nature has been an enormous influence. My experimental side came out in middle school and creative writing intrigued me. Thankfully, I had a family member who was also a writer and a creative one at that. My cousin Terah (also featured in this anthology) inspired me with her raw and honest writing. Coming from the same family with similar dynamics, writing woke things up within myself that I was only (at that time) at the threshold of truly understanding. Without her influence or guidance, I wouldn’t be as brave of a writer.
Writing has been about that for me: learning to brave the brutality that is life, sometimes. It has also been about leaning into the beauty that is so visceral it can change who we are if we allow it to. It has been about keeping a record of this journey so that I never abandon myself again. It has been about sharing the common thread of humanity and hoping that perhaps in some aspect of my story, another person might see themselves. It has and continues to be an ever-evolving, living, and breathing expression that I am happy to hold hands with.