Archives of American Art

Oral history interview with Judy Kensley McKie

Summary

Collection ID:
AAA.mckie04
Creators:
McKie, Judy Kensley, 1944-
Cooke, Edward S., 1954-
Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America
Dates:
2004 November 22
Languages:
English
.
Physical Description:
88 Pages
Transcript
Repository:

Scope and Contents

Scope and Contents
An interview of Judy Kensley McKie conducted 2004 November 22, by Edward S. Cooke, Jr., for the Archives of American Art's Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America, in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Scope and Contents
McKie speaks of having artist parents; growing up in Lexington, Massachusetts; doing art projects as a child; studying painting at the Rhode Island School of Design; spending her senior year in Rome; teaching art at a private school; making wall hangings and other early projects with her husband Todd; her first furniture pieces; exhibiting her work at Design Research in Boston; joining New Hamburger Cabinetworks; working on commissioned projects; being a self-taught furniture maker; working in a cooperative shop; becoming interested in wood carving; using animal imagery in her work; being influenced by art from other cultures; students who worked in the shop; exhibiting in galleries such as Pritam & Eames; participating in various exhibitions; how her work has changed during her career; experimenting with colors and figure designs; becoming part of the woodworking community; having her work cast in bronze and carved in stone; making small-scale objects out of resin; working on public art projects; how the craft world has changed; preparing for exhibitions; her current studio space; and the future of furniture making. McKie also recalls Ted Dodd, Mary Gregory, James Krenov, Wendell Castle, Garry Knox Bennett, Alphonse Mattia, and others.

Biographical / Historical

Biographical / Historical
Judy Kensley McKie (1944- ) is a furniture maker from Cambridge, Massachusetts. Edward S. Cooke, Jr. is a professor from Newtonville, Massachusetts.

Administration

Sponsor
Funding for this interview was provided by the Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America. Funding for the digital preservation of this interview was provided by a grant from the Save America's Treasures Program of the National Park Service.
Existence and Location of Copies
Transcript available on line
Immediate Source of Acquisition
This interview is part of the Archives of American Art Oral History Program, started in 1958 to document the history of the visual arts in the United States, primarily through interviews with artists, historians, dealers, critics and administrators.

Digital Content


Using the Collection

Conditions Governing Access
Transcript available on the Archives of American Art website.

More Information

General

General
Originally recorded on 3 sound discs. Reformatted in 2010 as 4 digital wav files. Duration is 4 hrs., 1 min.


Keywords

Keywords table of terms and types.
Keyword Terms Keyword Types
Woodworkers -- Massachusetts Occupation Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Furniture making Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Women artists Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Educators Occupation Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Furniture designers -- Massachusetts -- Boston Occupation Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Decorative arts Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Sound recordings Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Interviews Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America Corporate Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid

Archives of American Art
750 9th Street, NW
Victor Building, Suite 2200
Washington, D.C. 20001
https://www.aaa.si.edu/services/questions