Seeing through the eye of a camera was Rita Crane’s main passion in high school. This isn’t surprising because her father Ralph Crane was a notable photo journalist for The New York Times and a respected Life Magazine staff photographer for more than 30 years. Rita spent several hours of her teen years experimenting with wet-printing techniques in the darkroom for black-and-white photography. This taught her skills that now translate nicely to a digital format. Today, her representatives on the North Coast of Mendocino are Mendocino Art Center, Prentice Gallery, Northcoast Artist Gallery and Gallery of the Senses. Having spent much of her childhood overseas, she graduated from UCLA in Art History and History and traveled extensively through Switzerland, France, Tahiti, Germany, Los Angeles, the American Southwest, New York City, and the Rocky Mountain Front Range. Rita did it partly because she inherited this travel gene from her father and partly because of her father’s profession.
While in New Mexico, a Pueblo Indian jeweler taught her silversmithing and lapidary, and later she designed and hand built, together with a partner, an authentic Territorial Style adobe home complete with kiva fireplaces, tilework, and vigas near Albuquerque in the Rio Grande Valley. Her art education has included years of hands-on artwork, designing, and drawing. Under the kind guidance of Tulku Rinpoche Tarthang, she made stained glass windows for the temple at Odiyan. Together with Temple Peter, they founded a crystal-glass sculpture company called Denali Crystal. The clients of the company include Tibet and Nyingma Meditation Center, Pacific Bell, Toyota, 3M Corporation, M.I.T., and countless private collectors.
