11/13/2011
09/08/2011
08/29/2011
08/21/2011
08/19/2011
07/31/2011
06/13/2010
Crane Hall Studio
Welcome to Crane Hall Studio!
A studio is an artist's space. It is, as Leonardo da Vinci once wrote, a place where there might be marvelous things to see. A studio can be any where the artist declares "This is my space!" Some studios are neat and tidy, most are not. 
Artist Judith Funkhouser
Having wandered for some distance among the overhanging rocks I came to the mouth of a huge cavern before which for a time I remained stupefied...my back bent to an arch, my left hand clutching my knew, while with the right I shaded my eyes and I bent first one way and then another in order to see whether I could make out anything inside, though this was almost impossible because of the intense darkness within. And after remaining there for a time, suddenly there were awakened in me two emotions, fear and desire; fear of the dark, threatening cavern and desire to see whether there might be any marvelous thing in it. - Leonardo da Vinci (1452 - 1527)
Crane Hall is the studio of artist Judith Funkhouser. The name comes from the the story associated with the Yellow Crane Pavilion (also called Yellow Crane Pagoda, Yellow Crane Tower) located in Hubai province overlooking the Yangtze River. According to the story, long ago an old man came to a drinking place owned by a man named Hsin. The old man had no money to pay Hsin for his drinks. Instead he took an orange peel and drew a picture of a crane on a blank wall. Later when the customers clapped and sang, the crane on the wall would flutter and dance. The bar became famous and Hsin became very wealthy. Years later the old man appeared again. He blew a flute, a white cloud came down, the crane flew down from the wall. The old man climbed on the back of the crane and then rode the white cloud off into the sky. Afterwards Hsin built a large pavilion that he named after the crane in the drawing on the wall.
Throughout the ages have given significant names to their studios, such as:
Eastern Slope
The famous Chinese writer, poet, artist, calligrapher, pharmacologist, and statesman Su Shi (1037 - 1001) called his retreat Dongpo ('Eastern Slope'), from which he took his literary pseudonym, Su Dongpo
Mountain of the Dragon’s Brightness
Li Lung-mien (1040-1106) was one of the leading Chinese painters of the Sung dynasty, and a master of ink drawing in the Northern Sung wen-jen hua, the literati school of painting. His ink technique depended on sharply etched, fluent lines, which he used with grace and precision to define a subject. He lived a life of pious insight at his villa Mountain of the Dragon’s Brightness.
A studio is also a spiritual place. Here the artist meets with kindred spirits - past and present. For Funkhouser such places have been Concord, Massachusetts and Kennebunkport, Maine. For a time she painted in a place that had been turned into a studio by Naum Gabo, Russian-born American Constructivist Sculptor)1890-1977). Gabo was a friend of Wassily Kandinsky, painter and author of Concerning the Spiritual in Art, which asserted the principles of abstract art. In Woodbury his neighbors were Kay Sage and Ives Tanguy, Alexander Calder, Hans Richter, and Andre Breton, artists she felt a special kinship with.
