Seeing through the eye of a camera was my main passion in high school—not surprisingly, since my father, Ralph Crane, was a photo-journalist for The New York Times and a notable Life Magazine staff photographer for over thirty years. Those teen years behind a single lens reflex and the hours spent in the darkroom experimenting with wet printing techniques for black & white photography taught me skills that now translate nicely into digital format.
I graduated from UCLA in History and Art History and traveled extensively through France, Switzerland, Germany, Tahiti, Los Angeles, New York City, the American Southwest, and the Rocky Mountain front range. Partly because of my father’s profession and partly because I spent so much of my childhood overseas, I caught the travel fever and have traveled ever since.
My art education has included years of drawing, designing, and hands-on artwork. Under the kind guidance of Tarthang Tulku Rinpoche, I made stained glass windows for the entrance pagodas to the beautiful temple at Odiyan, a Tibetan Buddhist retreat center in the hills of Sonoma County, California. A Pueblo Indian jeweler taught me lapidary and silversmithing in New Mexico, and later a partner and I designed and hand built an authentic Territorial Style adobe home complete with vigas, tilework, and kiva fireplaces in the colorful Rio Grande Valley near Albuquerque.
With Peter Temple, I founded Denali Crystal, a nationally known crystal glass sculpture company whose clients include Toyota, Pacific Bell, M.I.T. , 3M Corporation, and the Tibetan Nyingma Meditation Center. Having worked in various media, it’s a delight to return to my first love—photography. I credit my father for the sensitivity and excitement with which I look at the world, and thank my mother, who was truly a lover and supporter of the fine arts.
http://www.ritacranestudio.com