Judy
Cranmer
Judy was born and raised
in Vancouver, B.C. She took her academic training at the Vancouver School
of Art where she graduated with honors in design in 1956. After leaving
art school, she spent two years freelancing in silk-screen printing
and fabric design. Judy spent some of the next few years traveling and
working in Europe, soaking up the European artistic traditions and becoming
intrigued by the Northwest Coast Indian designs she saw in the major
European collections of North American native art.
Judy began to develop her characteristic
style and focus. She began what has become a lifelong study of Northwest
coast Indian art and design. "I love to fill spaces with patterns
and design", she says, and it is within the tradition of the northwest
coast native culture that she found the aesthetic principles that have
guided and formed her art. It was also about this time that Judy met
Doug Cranmer, noted Kwakiutl carver, and through him began her long
and close association with the Hunt family, a Kwakiutl family rich in
artistic knowledge and tradition.
Cranmer returned to an earlier
interest in ceramics studying with various potters. When she wrapped
the Kwakiutl Raven design around the space enclosed by her pottery,
Judy Cranmer's distinctive style was born. Each piece is made from high-firing
stoneware clay. The designs are drawn and then painted by hand before
the nontoxic glaze goes on. The pots are then fired in an electric kiln.
Many of Judy Cranmer's pieces derive their form and design from the
traditional ceremonial feast dishes, bowls and bentwood boxes of the
northwest coast aboriginal pieces. Her wide range of dinnerware and
sculpture exhibits Judy's skill in adapting traditional forms to contemporary
applications.
Recently, Cranmer has been experimenting
with larger, more complex sculptural forms. She has also been ranging
farther a field for her inspiration, adapting some of her newest designs
from cultures other than that of Northwest Coast peoples. The result
has been recent exhibitions featuring hinged wall sculptures that were
inspired by ceremonial textiles and baskets, by painted hides and northern
style house fronts. Judy Cranmer continues to expand her art and its
sources of inspiration, always looking for new designs to fill the spaces
held captive by her clay.
Pottery Maker
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