Doug Cranmer smokes unfiltered cigarettes. He says if you're going to do something, you'd better do it right. This is a philosophy he holds for many things. As Artist-in-Residence at the Museum of Anthropology in July and August 1994, the 'Namgis master carver Doug Cranmer has a disarmingly pragmatic view of his own art.
"It's a business," he says repeatedly. "It's what I do for a living."
And business has been good. He has worked on projects as varied as the Haida Houses, now standing behind the UBC Museum of Anthropology, and the Vancouver Expo '86 Spirit Lodge in the GM Pavilion. He has his work displayed in places ranging from the Canadian Museum of Civilization in Hull, Québec, to the U'mista Cultural Centre in Alert Bay, B.C. Examples of private and public commissions of his totem poles stand all over the world.
But Cranmer finds it difficult to take this 'art thing' seriously. He paints or carves what interests him, then stops when he's tired of it. Ask him about the deeper meaning of a piece, ask what he meant to say when he carved or painted this or that, and Cranmer will react with exasperation. He knows that most people want to hear something mystical, but he isn't afraid to say that the bear is just a bear, or the whale is just a whale.
A mystique has grown around 'Indian' artists. There are certain ways that people expect them to behave, things that they are expected to say. Anyone who thinks Doug Cranmer fits that mold, however, is in for a surprise.
