photo: Roger Haile

Amanda Crowe

Art Form: Folk/Traditional Crafts and Visual Arts

Cherokee, NC

 

About Amanda Crowe

Like many traditional artists, Cherokee carver Amanda Crowe first learned her craft by watching others. She was drawing and carving by the age of four, and she was selling her carvings of animals and birds by the age of eight. "I was barely big enough to handle a knife," she said, "but I knew what I wanted to do so I just whittled away. I guess it was part of my heritage."

Her talent did not go unrecognized, and she eventually left North Carolina and completed high school in Chicago. From there she went on scholarship to the Art Institute of Chicago where she earned a Master of Fine Arts degree, followed by study in Mexico with Jose de Creeft. Her decision to return to the Qualla Boundary in the early 1950s was a turning point in her own life and in that of the tribal community. She was hired by the Cherokee Historical Association to teach art and carving at Cherokee High School, and she taught there for almost forty years.

Going home and giving something back to her people seemed natural to Amanda Crowe. That decision, says one of her former students, led to the transformation of carving in Cherokee. What had been a minor craft became a virtual art industry, in large part because of her influence as a teacher. Helping students achieve their own goals of learning to carve and sculpt in wood and stone and seeing many of these same students continue their work after graduation was a deep source of pride for her.

She occasionally worked in stone and clay, but wood was her favorite medium. "I carve because I love to do it," she said. "The movement of the grains--they almost seem alive under your hands--and the beautiful tones and textures all add life to the figures you whittle." In her hands, blocks of wild cherry, buckeye, and black walnut take on the shapes of deer, owls, geese, raccoons, and--her signature pieces--bears. "Everybody in the country must have one of my bears," she said jokingly.

Amanda Crowe successfully combined the roles of artist and teacher and received numerous honors and awards for her work. She exhibited carvings at the Art Institute of Chicago, the Mint Museum in Charlotte, the Atlanta Art Museum, Denver Museum of Art, and as far away as England and Germany. Her pieces are in many permanent collections including those at the Smithsonian Institution and the United States Department of the Interior. She was quick to say, however, that the most satisfying reward she received was knowing she had taught hundreds of Cherokee students to carry on in the tradition of their ancestors.