Interview with Tanya Crane

Sophia Abrams 0:01

Okay. Hello, this is Sophia Abrams interviewing Professor Tanya Crane. This is for the UW Black Artists Project today is December 20. It is 10:03am. I am currently in Minneapolis and she is in Boston. And we are recording this over Zoom. All right, so my first question for you is why UW Madison for grad school?

Tanya Crane 0:32

Well, I applied to five different schools. And I was accepted into four. And then I chose to go visit I think three schools just to get the feel of the area, get the feel of the professors because my opinion is that you do choose your school based on the professors that you will be working with, because it's such an intimate kind of setting. And UW-Madison became my top choice after meeting Lisa Gralnick, who was my major professor. And our kind of interview went really well. And I felt like she and I really gelled. I also thought that the town of Madison itself was big enough to where if I was bringing, you know, I had to bring my -- my husband with me. So he would have to have something to do. You know, it had to be like a big enough city where he could get a job, or connect to the music community. So yeah.

Sophia Abrams 1:39

So then once you decided UW-Madison, how was your first year?

Tanya Crane 1:47

Um, well, it was cold. But I was used to that, because I had moved from upstate New York. And as far as school went, it was pretty exciting. Like the first -- the first semester went really well, it was kind of getting to know, getting to know my other cohorts. We were kind of a small group in metals, there was six of us, I think. The whole group of grads that came in for that class was in the 30s, so maybe 33, or something. And so it was kind of, you know, getting to know what grad school meant versus undergrad, and exploring materials, settling into my classes, really digging into work and exploration. And then, after the first semester, my major professor went on, like a half a year sabbatical. And we had, I think, I think it was half a year, we had another professor come in [Tina Rath], who was amazing. So she really was about kind of exploring material. And 00:03:00I might have this out of order, but exploring material and the history of materials and their meaning. And so this really kind of kicked my, my exploration of like material and meaning in gear, so I was really noticing kind of my surroundings more and how, you know, an African American might navigate the Midwest. And so I started making projects based on that specific experience. And I think, you know, by the summer, I had really settled in, and kind of the next year, there was going to be a search for a new professor. And so that meant readjusting again to another professor. So Lisa came back. And then the search went on, and we had another kind of interim interim professor who came as well. And so there's a there's a lot of shifting, actually, throughout my whole three years, as far as teachers went, but Lisa and I remained close the entire time.

Sophia Abrams 4:16

Going off of that, so you mentioned how, just like your first year was a big transition in terms of undergrad to graduate school. Could you explain a little more about that transition?

Tanya Crane 4:28

Sure. Well, I feel like undergrad is really kind of based around classes, you know, people are making projects with, you know, kind of a predetermined outcome. And a lot of academic classes are required during undergrad and in grad school, not so much. You know, you might have some more interest specific classes that I would take and only like one or two required and then I could just really take a plethora of things that interested me. And so I think that's kind of maybe the main difference that there's a lot of distractions in undergrad of things that kind of didn't really matter to me. And then in grad school, I started. I started really focusing on like African art, the diaspora, I was looking at folkloric art. A class that I loved from Professor Henry Drewel was "Carnival," and how like the Diaspora affected these ceremonies and masking and that really played into the work that I made going forward. And, you know, I really started that in my, I think, either my second semester or my second year. But yeah, I think that that is maybe the major difference between undergrad and grad is just distracted work and the work where I can focus.

Sophia Abrams 5:58

Going off of that, so you mentioned how more so second semester, you got more 00:06:00into understanding what the Diaspora meant for you at the time? How would you say that Madison shaped your kind of direction in terms of really looking into what the Diaspora meant for you?

Tanya Crane 6:21

Well, I think that there was a lot more like a diverse range of classes offered at UW. I think, because it's a huge school, you know, at the big 10 school, there could be really large, kind of expansive departments that I could pick and choose classes from. And I think that that one was a big change and shift. And I'd actually met Professor Drewel before I even entered grad school, at a craft school. And I was like, "Oh, my God, I just got into Madison, and so glad, glad to meet you." And then remembering as I went through, like, the first semester, "Oh, yeah, I want to check this out. I took his class, and it was, you know, a game changer." Also, I think just the kind of notice -- noticeable difference between living in a Midwest city versus living in upstate New York, which was, you know, incredibly diverse, because the majority of the students that went to that state school came from Long Island. So they came from, you know, a borough of New York, and that, you know, every borough in New York is incredibly diverse. And then, you know, so just everybody, I was surrounded by were, you know, people of color, Hispanic, Spanish, Middle Eastern, like there's a huge range. But in Madison, it was very specific, like, who was in every section of the school. I don't remember really seeing other black people until I went to a kind of black specific event. And I was like, I told her, my classmates, I'm like, I, this is the first time I've kind of actually been surrounded by other people of color. And he's like, "Yeah, well, these are all the dudes on the football team." I was like, "Oh, okay, that makes sense. So that was the other kind of major difference." It was like just the cultural kind of -- kind of groups and stereotypes are super amplified in Madison. And people kind of stuck in their groups, because I think they felt safe there. Because it really was a dominant white environment. And more so than really, I've been exposed to my entire life. And I grown up in Southern California, which is pretty diverse, you know, mostly, I would say, leaning towards more Hispanic, but diverse otherwise. And in New York, of course, is incredibly diverse. And then Wisconsin is like, super white. It's just like, no getting around that. College always brings a lot 00:09:00of people together, a lot of international students and things like that in Madison is the same, but once you kind of get out of your kind of school bubble, everything becomes really apparent, actually how things work there. And but, you know, the city and then outside of the city. So I hope that answered your question.

Sophia Abrams 9:25

Yeah. So you also mentioned during that time, well, actually before you started grad school, the influence of Lisa Gralnick, so can you just talk a little bit more about that, please?

Tanya Crane 9:40

Yeah, actually my earphones--

Sophia Abrams 9:43

Just, you're good.

Tanya Crane 9:51

Sorry about that. Can you hear me? Oh, yeah, you're good. It actually sounds better, strangely. Can you hear me now You Yeah. Okay, sorry about that. Oh, you're fine. Okay, so your question was?

Sophia Abrams 10:09

So you mentioned prior to grad school how big of an influence Lisa Gralnick was for. Can just kind of talk a bit more about her influence on you during the beginning of your time at Madison.

Tanya Crane 10:23

I think Lisa is a powerhouse. Just by example, she is the hardest working metalsmith I've ever met. She wakes up at like four or five in the morning, and she goes directly to the studio. And then she'll, you know, come to class, teach for three hours and then go back to her studio. Like she works all the time. She's always working towards her art. She's very nurturing if you show an interest, right? So like, if you're, if you are kind of looking for answers, and are kind of lazy about your research, she'll call you out. She's a New Yorker, through and through, she will call you out. And I think that everybody needs that push. And I certainly am not sensitive, like I don't, you know, I'm not, you know, I've got a hard head, and I'm not sensitive. And so it didn't affect me emotionally. But I needed that kind of push to really dig in to the things I was interested in. And she helped me to do that, you know, she, she had, you know, experience in her life. She didn't go from, you know, high school to college. And then that was it, like she had life experiences which you need in a teacher. And so to me, that was maybe the most beneficial like aspect of her was her kind of like, I would say tough love. I think also, she's really, really talented. And she's really technically savvy. And she even though in grad school, we were, you know, we could basically take a lot of independence, we 00:12:00could take a lot of kind of classes that honed in our research, she, she kind of shouldn't force, but she strongly encouraged us to take a lot of her classes. We absolutely didn't need to like I had a full on metalsmithing background, but she taught me a ton of technical things that I had never addressed or kind of got into. So that made it even like more of an enriching experience, because she knew that I wanted to be a professor. So she wanted to make sure that you know, I didn't come out of her program and say, "Oh, yeah, this was my teacher, but I don't know how to do this." She was really, really a stickler for that. So yeah.

Sophia Abrams 12:45

So then from that, how would you say that overall. How would you feel that your knowledge in metalsmithing expanded that first year, or that first semester, I guess?

Tanya Crane 12:59

I would say, pretty vast. I mean, I think I sat in on her second or her. I can't remember what she taught the first semester. I think she was teaching like beginning metalsmithing. And I sat in on that class. Like, obviously, I did not need to take a beginning metalsmithing class, but I sat in and watched her teach and watched her projects, some of which I still use in my teaching. I think things that I wanted to accomplish in my work, she helped me work through. When there was opportunities to meet other metalsmiths like sometimes we would not do collaborations, but do kind of networking with UW-Milwaukee, she would really help kind of facilitate that. And you gotta be, we started up the metalsmithing club, which was like really strong. You know, we raised a ton of money, we made a lot of work. We worked to get the rest of the community involved in what metals did to. Yeah, I think that you know, I mean, every aspect that a teacher should, she did, she's definitely not lazy. She doesn't disappear. She's definitely around when you need her when you're asking for her help, for sure.

Sophia Abrams 14:22

Okay, let me see. So from that, and from your first semester, you talk about more so your second semester how you took the Henry Druhl class. Before we talk about your second year. Is there anything else that you think we should talk about during your first year? Are there any maybe notable exhibitions that year?

Tanya Crane 14:52

I think in our first year, I'm pretty sure Lisa made us do a metals exhibition at the Art Lofts, it was called an "Archival Impulse." And it was based on it 00:15:00was based on a book by Hal Foster. And we made work kind of based on that. I can't I can't remember actually what I made. Because that book was more about kind of like, kind of cataloguing and archiving. And I can vaguely remember what other people made, but I can't remember. It was a long time ago, a lot happened, you know, between, then and now. So. So yes, we did have one exhibition opportunity. And I think also our whole entire grad cohort, we put on an exhibition as well. So it was like a, you know, all the 33 of us had an exhibition. And it was like, first year grad show, I think, is what it was. And I think we did that actually, every year. So second year grad show, third year grad show. So yeah, exhibited twice.

Sophia Abrams 16:14

Going off that you, mentioned how the whole grad school or the whole grad cohort had the show. Can you just talk a little bit more about perhaps your experience with that cohort? I mean, I know you mentioned how there were about six of you in the metal smithing department. And but can you just explain a little bit more about that experience.

Tanya Crane 16:35

So we all had to be in this kind of not colloquium that was the kind of where the visiting artist came, but we were in a grad seminar class. And so we all met once a week. And what's his name? He was the art chair for the like the last six years. Dave Rosenberg. Rosenberg is his last name. He taught the class. And we it was rough, like loosely based around this book, like art and criticism, which super thick book. And we would have readings, and then we would all have discussions, basically. And we kept a binder like this big binder. Where we put like any sketches, additional readings, research and things in this binder, we turn that in at the end of I don't know if that is a year long class, it was definitely at least a semester. And then we didn't have to take like a seminar again. In metals, specifically Lisa required us to have a metal seminar time which no other area had. So we in addition to you know, the grad seminar, our small cohort met with Lisa once a week and had a metals seminar class and she would give us readings and this is where the Hal foster book came into play. And then that exhibition she was definitely big on research and kind of knowing your 00:18:00kind of predecessors etc, and kind of getting our minds churning because I think that people can become complacent in their studies, you know, and she you know, she does not want that. So, yeah, I think that was that was i don't think I think we went to an exhibition as a -- as a group, the grad seminar, we went to New York. No, why did I go to New York? It feel like it's -- I can't remember. Nevermind, erase that. I can't remember.

Sophia Abrams 18:41

You're good. Um, so then you talk about that. Were there any notable events? Or I guess artistic things that happened between the end of your first year and before during the summer like before your first before your second year?

Tanya Crane 18:56

So in 2012 so just before I enter grad school, I went to Haystack for the first time.You're frozen? Let me know when you come back.

Sophia Abrams 19:19

Am I still frozen?

Tanya Crane 19:21

I wonder if it still records when you're frozen.

Sophia Abrams 19:24

I think it does.

Tanya Crane 19:26

Alright, I'm going to keep going because--

Sophia Abrams 19:38

Can you hear me? Can you hear me? I can read.

Tanya Crane 19:51

Yeah, it doesn't look like it's recording anymore.

Sophia Abrams 19:53

It says on mine that it's still recording. Now I see you. Okay, that was weird. It's never exited out, but okay, yeah. I think it's recording still.

Tanya Crane 20:12

Okay. So I think between between my first and second year I went back to Haystack in the summer to TA and I also went to Penland School of Crafts and TAed. So these are both craft schools. They are two week long classes. And so my friend Arden that summer in metals, they're both enamel classes. So I did that kind of back to back I went, I can't remember which one came first, but there was like a week in between them. And that took up over a month of time. And that was amazing. And then so the fellowship that I got at UW-Madison was like a full 00:21:00tuition remission plus stipend first year, and third year, but in your second year, you got the tuition remission, but you had to work. And so I was Lisa's project assistant, my second year, which was great, but the stipend was way less. It was like half.

Sophia Abrams 21:28

Going off of that and talking about your second year now. Can you talk a little bit more about what it meant to be her project assistant?

Tanya Crane 21:39

Well, for Lisa met it was basically like a full day of work one day a week. And it was a good day that she chose. And she was working towards this big. I think it was the triennial -- the Wisconsin, the Madison MMOCA Triennial. And she had kind of started falling in love with ceramics. And so it meant making these big ceramic like 12 by 12 inch tiles that had a lumpy bumpy surface that we use terra sigillata, to kind of paint this natural flesh tone of like a menagerie of color flesh tone colors. And these tiles, we're going to go over a truncated pyramid, which was like, I don't know, eight feet square, I think it was humongous. And it was probably three and a half feet tall, four feet tall. And then she created these huge ceramic orbs that were and they had tools that were kind of embedded in them. These are all ceramic and we stacked them so. Oh, I can't hear you.

Sophia Abrams 23:15

I'm going to try to switch my wifi.

Tanya Crane 23:18

Okay.

Sophia Abrams 23:32

Okay, can you hear me? Okay, so if you could just pick up from where you left off?

Tanya Crane 23:57

Sure, I was talking about so-- working with Lisa. So she had switched to 00:24:00ceramics and was helping her with her project towards the triennial. And also, okay, so I'm remembering the order now. So I was correct. The first year Lisa was gone for six months or the second semester and Tina Rath came in. And then they did a higher and they hired [Jeffrey Clancy] as a full time professor in my second year, but also she brought in a visiting artists Professor [Lindsay Rice.] So I had two new teachers my second year, but during that second year, I was also Lisa's, she took a full year sabbatical, and I was her project assistant. And she really didn't spend any time in our studio and she spent like 24 hours a day in her studio, and ceramics galore. So like, in addition to helping her ceramics projects, I helped her install that installation and you know when it was over deinstall the installation. She took me to NCECA with her which is at the National Conference for Ceramics. You know she's not a ceramicist. But the Theaster Gates was speaking. And I don't know if you know who he is, but he's amazing. You should look him up. He is, uh, he transformed a building in Chicago that was kind of dilapidated -- dilapidating and turn it into an artist space. He also sings. He's also ceramicist. Like he was an amazing speaker, very calming voice he like has a band with his kind of like a, like a church choir, but more contemporary. Very cool. So we did that. We also had the Society of North American Goldsmith's or SNAG, that's our, that's our metalsmith society had the conference in Minneapolis. So we all went to that, as through our metalsmithing Club, we raise money to take us all there and stay in the hotel, which is was really expensive. So we did some jewelry sales and stuff, but we all went. And that was a lot of fun. But also, at the very beginning of my second year, my husband got very sick. And he he had driven out to Seattle and had a couple strokes when he got there literally like the next day. And so I flew out there, and they found out that he had heart disease and like he was dying. And miraculously, he was a week in the hospital. And then he started to recover. But like, you know, it was like touch and go. And I had to 00:27:00stay out there. We had to stay for a month he wasn't allowed to travel. So they wanted to kind of watch him and see if the medicine would would help. Because he had like pretty much heart failure. And it was a disease that he didn't know was happening. He thought he was had allergies. But so we stayed out there for a month. And this is just like I, you know, I needed to drop my classes. I just I was like this is happening and they all understood. And finally, after a month, when he were able to travel we drove back to because he couldn't go on a plane. We drove back to Madison, and then I kind of just like, was a little bit freaked out for a while because he was home alone. But he had to wear this like defibrillator vest and like his heart, you know, it was like, only working at 10%. And it was like, totally, but the UW-Madison like system was so amazing. Like, I'm so glad that we live there because he got full coverage. They paid for his over $100,000 hospital bill in Seattle. I don't even know how that would have anywhere else. It was crazy. Anyway, so I guess, you know, going through the UW system helped me through that financially. And I had a job, you know, because he couldn't work for the rest of the year, basically. And Lisa hired him. So she had gotten this huge grant, she was great at getting grants. And so the ceramic stuff on the days that I wasn't working for her, he would work for her. So we had you know, we had some income. But second year was crazy. Husband almost dying and like being out for a month and then coming back and trying to figure out how to kind of reintegrate and focus on my work.

And I had two other teachers who were not Lisa, who had a totally different approach to teaching. And Lindsay was amazing. Jeffrey not so much. And she was -- she was young and she was vibrant. And she was into alternative materials too. So she introduced us to powder coating which I had never done which was fun. She -- she conducted our seminar, which is funny because she was the visiting professor. She was, you know, much younger than me even. And Jeffrey was like the main professor and he did not conduct our seminar. So that was a little bit strange, but she was great. What else happened that year, so you know, so you can get two degrees. A Masters of Arts and then an MFA. So if you choose to get the MA, your second year. That means your third year you have to create a whole new body of work. I chose to do that. Because I'm crazy, even 00:30:00after like all this happening with my husband, and that's when I started creating this graffito work, the woven seagrass work, that was all in my second year. So, going off the theme of African and American, that store that's in Madison. I was thinking about this kind of this, you know, black American, kind of appropriating African art. Like what does that mean? Are we appropriating, you know, like asking these questions like and then kind of spearing off of that the title that store: African and American. That "and" in there was really important, I thought, and I was still looking at kind of my environment for material. And although I didn't use the reeds from the lake, I started using seagrass in place of that. And so I wove kind of baskets and made those into jewelry. I was using black and white's graffito, which is a West African bead technique. So they use graffito beads to make necklaces and stuff in Mali. And but it's usually like earth tones. So I chose black and white, very kind of striking palette. And I made this big necklace called "Big Pimpin." And it was just kind of like a African contemporary hip hop necklace. And like the chain was gold, the settings were all gold. And I made a couple broaches, which are like, you know, pins, big pins for that. And I displayed it at the Art Lofts. And I think I also so that year, I also applied and got an exhibition at-- I forget, it's not the opera center-- it's like the Overture. The Overture. Yeah, so they have a, like a show that you can apply for. And so I applied and I got the show and I saw I curated a selection with me. And two other of my cohorts and -- no, three other my cohorts.

And I don't remember the title of it, it'll come to me, I'll have to look at my CV to see.

Sophia Abrams 32:37

Wait, I'm looking at my notes. Was it "Perception"?

Tanya Crane 32:40

Yes. Yes, it was. Because -- so it was -- I mean, you know, and I'm black and white. It was [Soohye], she's Korean. [Xilun] who is Chinese. And then [Wannesia] who is Native American. So we thought about, like the perception of, you know, our image versus what other people see versus what we see. And so we 00:33:00all made like two or three works that responded to that. And really kind of in the vein of the way we work. So I think I showed some of the work that I made for my Master's show in that show. Juanisia does these birch bark bitings, which are like she literally bites birch bark, and it leaves a pattern behind. And so she makes vessels with that. Souhei made this beautiful silver necklace where she cast her fingers in like this position where she's kind of closing a clasp on a necklace. And it was kind of replicating her mom and her kind of that intimate moment of her mom like closing the clasp on her necklace. And what does [Xilun] make? Xilun's, it's kind of crazy. Like the shirt. It was-- I don't remember beyond that. It was like a button down shirt. And like what it was kind of -- his show was crazy. His masters show his MFA show Whoo. His is Xilun Wu. And his work is crazy.

Sophia Abrams 34:24

How was that show received by the public?

Tanya Crane 34:31

Well I think we had a reception. You know, and they pay for all of the all of the brochures and mailers and stuff and I think you know, it was -- it was lightly attended. It wasn't like a big thing. We also did like a talk. An artists talk and maybe 10-15 people came. We all got up and talked. You know, this is kind of at the beginning of me kind of publicly speaking to, so I was very nervous. You know, it's small, it's a small community. In metals and jewelry is a kind of weird thing. You know, if it was like, other of my kind of bigger cohorts, I've had shows there, and they're much more kind of well attended than ours was. And I think that that is just in general in the art world jewelry and metals are just like the craft. That's like below ceramics, and below basket weaving and stuff. It's like, not a huge deal. But in our community, it's a big deal. But other than that, it's like--

Sophia Abrams 35:41

I'm so going off of that. Let me see in my note. Can you talk a little bit more about your MA Show, so in my notes, I have it was at Gelsea Verna Gallery.

Tanya Crane 35:58

Um, so because that's not a defense show, really. I think I showed in the kind 00:36:00of there's like a glass vestibule there on the outside of the gallery. And then think two or three of I think, I think three of us four that were left that year, decided to do an MA show, and they were in the gallery. It was a good turnout. Those shows are -- it's weird, you know, school shows are weird. It wasn't like a big public event. You know, the rest of your cohort might show up, because there's good food, and there was really good food. So, you know, it was just like, kind of an insular event, I feel like the rest of UW-Madison does not really attend what the art school does. It's, you know, it's definitely not anywhere near what the, you know, the rigmarole of the football games produce. But, you know, I got across what I wanted to get across, and I thought it was displayed really well. And I was happy with it.

Sophia Abrams 37:21

So before we talk about your third year, are there any other notable experiences that you think are worthwhile to talk about?

Tanya Crane 37:33

Um, I would say culturally, so, you know, my husband was sick the beginning of the year, and was working for Lisa. And then as he started to recover, he started applying for jobs, and he got a job teaching in Middleton at the high school. So it was like the alternative school for Middleton High, I can't remember what they called it. And so sometimes I would go to his, you know, to the high school and, like, hang out with him and the kids. And, and I was think I was teaching them like some beadweaving stuff, you know, just doing some fun stuff with them. And I kind of got a better glimpse of the kind of culture of Madison, Middleton surrounding areas and was just really seeing how it kind of trickles out. This like weird idea of like, people of color, in a small rural city as the other. Like, there was one or two other black kids in his, in his class. And they were both mixed, I think. But they had assimilated really, into this kind of white culture. As I feel like when you're always the only black 00:39:00kid, you're always assimilating to the culture that surrounding you. I don't wanna say always, but like, that's basically what happens. There's no other representative of your culture there. And so that was kind of eye opening to me, because he, my husband was having a totally different experience than I was, you know, I was art world very focused. This is what I do all around me, like minded is what we're doing. Outside of that, it was just like country, and tractors. And, you know, like, we learned about is it called hic hop? Have you heard of that? It's, like, country hip hop. Like, there's really famous versions of that, but like, you know, that was introduced to us. Like, okay, so that was maybe a little bit, you know, another little thing that happened in my second year, that was interesting. So I feel like we -- we went on some field trips, fly somewhere-- oh, so there's a metalsmithing symposium in East Carolina, or North Carolina at the East Carolina University. And it was spearheaded by graduate students of their program, and it's the ECU symposium, and we raised money and flew. Me and my cohorts, we flew out to North Carolina and went to that symposium that was a lot of fun. It didn't go to Haystack that summer. First time, only time since 2012, that I haven't gone besides now because of the plague. But I think it was, I decided to join the Outdoor Club. And kind of embrace the Midwest and discovered kind of some of the my husband started playing in bands with other people. So you know, like the beer and brat culture, that whole thing like I really embraced that, like, I went to the Rathskeller and got beers and me and my cohorts, we hung out at the, we call it the terrace.

Sophia Abrams 41:24

Oh, yeah.

Tanya Crane 41:25

And I joined the Outdoor Club, and you can like take out canoes for free and kayaks and stuff. So I did that and really kind of became a joiner. And, I mean, I would have 100% say, join the outdoor club. It's the jam. It's like, you really hang out with other people, but you get all the equipment. Yeah, I mean, that was like the highlight of second the third years like this is this awesome, because it's a beautiful state, like Wisconsin is gorgeous. So that was fun. And 00:42:00just kind of I worked all summer, like I made work all summer in the studio, you know, they don't pick you out, which is great. And kind of working out ideas that you know, if they're, you know, the beginning of your first semester, you kind of start honing in on and you work towards for the because I had to make a whole new body of work.

Oh, I took a wood class. And I carved that butt piece that the wooden but called "User Friendly Black," that's the name of that. That's the one with the big wooden butt with the chalk can read and slap about. So I made that over the summer. And that became a piece for my -- my thesis show.

Sophia Abrams 42:54

So going off of that you kind of talked about during the summer embracing Wisconsin culture, but also starting to make all new pieces for your thesis show. So what was that process like for you to have to kind of go back to the drawing board and come up with new ideas.

Tanya Crane 43:16

Yeah, well, I'm I mean, I feel like I've made really good work, which I still show in that second year. And I felt the pressure of having to kind of top that. And I so I embrace the idea of just like go big or go home. So I was like, I'm gonna make a huge sculpture. Although I'm not a sculptor, I made that but like I can make sculpture. So I made that 20 foot long necklace. And that would just like slow and steady all year we had to show early in March because our Lisa went on another sabbatical. She went on this residency. And so she's like can you all have your shows early and we're like "Okay." So I really didn't get three full years. I got like two and a half years. And I slow and steady worked like I would cast those pieces. It was like a quick curing plaster. And you know, I would work on maybe 20 a day or something because I had to cast them let them dry and then spray paint them and then once I had them all made I had to assemble this thing so I had to divide it into sections and so I got chicken wire and I use zip ties to zip tie them to the chicken wire and once I had you know a panel then I did the next panel and I had to do a gradation I did a gradation of skintone colors. So that took a lot of planning so you know it kind of slow steady worked on that. And I already knew that I had the -- the butt piece and then I was like I need to make some more kind of big necklaces. And so 00:45:00that previous summer when I was at Haystack that there was a teacher there named Jim Cotter. And he worked a lot with ceramics art, not ceramics, cement. So I started casting with cement. And I think I formed some kind of ball thing, and styrofoam. And then I kind of roughly kind of captured that in a bag and made this like really rough, weird, kind of, like cement ball, and I embedded hair into it. And that became the necklace. And it was kind of like this weight. I was trying to convey it, which I'm not sure if I'm successful. This kind of the burden of carrying all the like history, that black history with you, your entire life, like it's all on your shoulders, you know, and that that big cement ball was really heavy. I also created the double dutch jump rope. And I mean, I think that is maybe the best piece I've ever made. It's like it has so much meaning embedded in it. And it's just like, three simple materials, you know, like a black dildo, and then blonde hair, and then a gold connector. And it's like a child's toy. You know, it's kind of a playground thing. It's, you know, double dutch is part of black culture. Dutch colonizers in Africa, you know, like, it had all of these meanings. And like, I was just like, "Okay, I'm gonna do this," and I -- and I did it. I still show that piece. And it connects with so many people, like it really resonates with a lot of people. We did a really fun photoshoot with that, you know, and I had my husband and my friend. They were the rope operators, and I was jumping. So then that added another layer of meaning to that. And it was in the snow and you know there were two white men, and I'm jumping in there, just all the stuff. So I think I kind of third year was really focusing on kind of bigger, more meaningful pieces that referenced the body. I was always thinking about jewelry, but it didn't necessarily make wearable jewelry for that show. And I was thinking about how, like, the symbolism of like items that we kind of interact with daily, how they're utilized, how they're perceived, like perception kind of flows through all of this work. And I was, I think, you know, I think I could have kept going. I felt like a little bit, you know, cut short a little bit by that having to go early. 00:48:00Because then you have to work out how it's going to be displayed and stuff. So really, I think, you know, maybe by February, I was pretty much done with my work.

Like I don't like to last minute things. So I was like very slow and steady that whole time. And school didn't end until like June. And I was done had my show in March. It went up for a week it came down and then my professor was gone. And then I think I was a friend had come by had visited over break and saw you know that "Big Pimpin" necklace, and was like you should make these into earrings. And so I think I started making production kind of my first iterations of production jewelry based off of that second year aesthetic. And then when I was done with school, like officially done, I had received a residency in Mexico. So I actually left a month early, I didn't walk or anything. And I left in May, beginning of May and went to Mexico to do this residency, which I think Jennifer Angus who's a professor there also did a couple years later. And it was pretty cool like there's there was zero resource there. But I spent a month in this apartment with like six other people who were there but we all had our separate apartments. And we hung out and kind of we went to Guadalajara which was close. I went to Puerto Vallarta by myself and I made some ceramic pieces because the the one piece of equipment there was a little tiny miniature ceramic kiln and I met this ceramic artist who didn't speak any English but somehow we, you know, were able to kind of figure out communication and he gave me some clay from his backyard. So he like he hand, you know, extracts clay and makes these really beautiful whistles. And this clay is gorgeous. Like I fired it there, it turned orange, I was really pretty. I came back and we, we had pre-arranged to house-sit for Lisa. And so my husband had already been there a month without me. And then I came back and we stayed in another two months. And then once Lisa came back, we left. And I had applied for a bazillion jobs and residencies, didn't get any of them. And then we drove to my parents house in Colorado Springs. And a week later, I got a phone call for the job that I am currently in, which was part time. And I accepted the job. And we drove across the country again, back to Boston. And I started working and then a couple years later, they 00:51:00opened up a full-time position. And I got it. And the rest is history. It's crazy.

Sophia Abrams 51:14

That leaves us on a good note. So now as a professor, how do you look back at your experience at Madison? How and how does that shape your work, but also your style of teaching?

Tanya Crane 51:31

Well, Lisa was a huge influence. You know, I'm always kind of striving to be as technically clear as I can be. I'm lucky that I don't have to be kind of constrained by only teaching metalsmithing classes. Because our school is interdisciplinary throughout. And so I can even teach in a fiber class if I wanted to. Like it's I'm not tethered to my area. As a matter of fact, I'm teaching foundations this year. I'm like the director of the first year program and teaching foundations, so it's kind of like not no metals at all. And I think that I'm still connected with the people that I went to school with. Paul [Sacaridiz] is the new director of Haystack. And I'm now on the board of trustees at Haystack. And it's because of my connection to him, I'm pretty sure like I was going to Haystack prior to him becoming the director. But like, there's just kind of full circle kind of connection. I still, I mean, that work was kind of like the best work that I made. And that was five years ago. And I still hold on to that kind of work ethic. And I'm still thinking about exploring with material in a way that I hadn't really thought of prior. I was exposed to, you know, a larger number of teachers than most are in grad school as a major professor area, you know, like I've had four I think, you know, Lisa, Tina, Lindsay, Jeffrey, like most people don't have that they have like one or maybe two. And I think that I tried to encourage my students now to kind of seek that kind of diversity in, in who their mentors are. And I seek to have my students really question what people are telling them. Because there's such a range of perspective. And if you know, they're only getting somebody who has done nothing and gone nowhere, they need to question that, you know, and I and I encourage 00:54:00students to have a life before coming to college, you know, like maybe you need to take a year or two off and go get a job. I do that all the time.

How has Madison shaped me now? I mean, I made the -- the perfect choice for me anyways, I love that it was a three year program. And we just this year made our grad program a three year program. And I was like full force behind that because I think you need time to develop and this kind of, you know the standard, get them in, get them out take all their money, "I'm just like no." Like you really need to kind of nourish and kind of help propel artists in a way that they want to be propelled. Not in how you think that they should feel into this certain mold. Yeah, I mean, it was incredibly influential. I haven't yet donated any money to them yet, but I did buy a T-shirt. So there's that.

Sophia Abrams 55:15

Well, do you think do you have any other things that you think we missed in this interview that you think are worthwhile to add?

Tanya Crane 55:28

Um, well, I do think that, you know, when I said that I started embracing, like, I became a joiner. Um, I feel like, once you start really kind of becoming a part of the community, you're going, you're going to be a part of the community, you know, you're going to be contributing, you're going to be getting something back, your work will become more rich. I don't want to be the person that talks shit about everybody else, you know, I don't want to be a part of that problem. You know, I want to be a person that's trying to solve the problems, you know. So I would encourage, like, you know, new students that go to UW-Madison to like, join the clubs, and have fun and like, embrace that and seek out opportunities, because UW-Madison has so much money. There's so much resource there and the 34 libraries. I mean, come on, like what school has 34 libraries, original texts from, you know, the 1800s that you can check out, you can actually touch them and bring them home. Like that is like gold. So I would say just, there's amazing teachers there and they have a lot of information and they you know, they're kind of web as wide.