When Cranmer and his crew finished working on the Expo '86 Folk Life Pavilion, a man who had been working on a pavilion next to them was surprised that they had finished on time, or that they had finished at all. "Everytime he saw us," Cranmer said. "We were on coffee break."
Cranmer states boldly that he takes all the shortcuts he can when he's working and likes to find the easiest way to do things. The best canoe, he likes to say, is the one with the engine attached to the back.
But at the same time, his knowledge of technique is impressive. At the height of his career, Cranmer completed 12 totem poles a year, carving on average about one foot of pole a day, something that would be quite difficult for a novice carver to achieve. This record is especially impressive in light of Cranmer's love of long coffee breaks.
When he was at the UBC Museum of Anthropology in 1994, Cranmer would casually finish a picture or a bracelet design in one evening. He would play with designs until he was satisfied, and then let other people experiment with his work. For instance, he designed the picture that became the cover for this sourcebook, then asked his wife Vivien to paint it.
Cranmer does not consider what he does as 'art.' He stresses this repeatedly. This is his work--it's like logging or fishing, something he does for a living. He dislikes being called an artist, but doesn't mind being called a whittler.
