“As a full time Artist my work has always been singularly personal and of `self`, being derived from the premise that all work should find a path between what I observe, my memory and impulse. My favourite quote is by David Shapiro, the American abstract artist :

`To See`-`To Act`-`To Know`-`To Do`,

John Crawford started learning about pottery in the early sixties and has completed his training at Waimea Craft Pottery, a traditional Bernard Leach-style workshop, and learnt to appreciate that making things is part of the human condition. His teachers, Jack Laird and Carl Vendelbosch, provided him with production skills and an appreciation of balance, symmetry and strong forms.

“All my work negotiates an agreement between what you see and what you know, between memory and impulse, between actions of your hands and the many actions that have gone before. My current work sets its self the task of establishing the boundary of a remembered object and event through drawing and modelling. Memory is the most potent tool for the artist. With memory you have the ability to take a partly remembered life event and build it into a work.”

Crawford’s work has travelled to Australia, Canada, England, USA and Germany. He has been a frequent exhibitor throughout New Zealand, and was included in several Fletcher Challenge Ceramics Awards in the 1980s.


「當一位全職的藝術家，我的工作總是格外的個人和'自我'。在此前提下，從我的創作中不難找到什麼是我的觀察，我的記憶以及我的理念。 我的最喜愛的引語是來自美國抽象藝術家大衛夏皮羅︰'去看'、 '去行動'、 '去瞭解'、 '去做'。」


John Crawford於六十年代開使接觸陶瓷，並且在Waimea工藝陶瓷所完成訓練， 在這間傳統的柏納浸出技術工坊中， 他學習並瞭解到製造物品是人類的一種本能。 他的教師，Jack Laird和Carl Vendelbosch，提供他生產的技能及欣賞平衡以及對稱性的形態。 他那豐富的陶器製法的基礎技術，成為他個人風格形成的一塊跳板。


「我的創作嘗試將把個人所見與所知的經驗，不論是在記憶與概念上，又或者在你掬手的動作與陶多多已經成為過去的行動之中，取得協調。」

「我現在的工作任務，是透過圖像和塑造來建立一個可回憶的物體和事件。 記憶是藝術家的最好的工具。 有了記憶你就有能力將部分記得的生命事件成為一件作品。」

Crawford的作品曾經週遊過澳洲、加拿大、英國、美國和德國。 在紐西蘭他的作品展出頻繁，並且於1980年獲得Fletcher陶藝創作多個獎項。 他偶爾在工作坊教授陶藝技術，除了獲得釵h獎項與殊榮外，他的作品也被釵h收藏家所珍藏。