cravis.bio.html

		William "Bill" Cravis grew up in Lexington, Massachusetts, oblivious to the turbulent 1960's (except, perhaps, for an abstract adolescent dread of being drafted into the Vietnam War). In the drought summer of 1988 he saddled a Fuji touring bicycle and headed west, from Lexington to San Francisco, where he lived and loved for several years as a worker-owner of Rainbow Grocery in the Mission District. Still restless, he apprenticed to potter John Connors in the foothills of Mt. Ashland, Oregon and later spent a year in Japan, visiting ancient kiln sites and assisting Japanese potters with their work. These alternative educational experiences and others – including a 3-year apprenticeship to a natural foods chef in Harvard Square – contribute greatly to the overall dynamic of Cravis' current artistic vision. He returned to higher education in 1999, earning a B.F.A. degree in Ceramics from California College of the Arts (2002) and an M.F.A. degree from Carnegie Mellon University (2006). Presently he is teaching at Ohio University, Athens, as Visiting Assistant Professor, Sculpture/Foundations. His distinctions include a full fellowship to Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture (2004) and a Joan Mitchell Foundation MFA Grant (2006). In addition to private collections, his work can be found in the collection of the State Museum of Pennsylvania, Harrisburg. William Cravis has been writing about himself in the third person for as long as he can remember.
ABOVE: Cravis gloats in front of his towering sculpture, Printing to the Sky (2006).

William "Bill" Cravis grew up in Lexington, Massachusetts, oblivious to the turbulent 1960's (except, perhaps, for an abstract adolescent dread of being drafted into the Vietnam War). In the drought summer of 1988 he saddled a Fuji touring bicycle and headed west, from Lexington to San Francisco, where he lived and loved for several years as a worker-owner of Rainbow Grocery in the Mission District. Still restless, he apprenticed to potter John Connors in the foothills of Mt. Ashland, Oregon and later spent a year in Japan, visiting ancient kiln sites and assisting Japanese potters with their work. These alternative educational experiences and others – including a 3-year apprenticeship to a natural foods chef in Harvard Square – contribute greatly to the overall dynamic of Cravis' current artistic vision.

He returned to higher education in 1999, earning a B.F.A. degree in Ceramics from California College of the Arts (2002) and an M.F.A. degree from Carnegie Mellon University (2006). Presently he is teaching at Ohio University, Athens, as Visiting Assistant Professor, Sculpture/Foundations. His distinctions include a full fellowship to Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture (2004) and a Joan Mitchell Foundation MFA Grant (2006). In addition to private collections, his work can be found in the collection of the State Museum of Pennsylvania, Harrisburg.

William Cravis has been writing about himself in the third person for as long as he can remember.