This week we sit down at the Cowee School with Cricket Woodward.

A long-time resident of the western US, Cricket Woodward currently lives in North Carolina near her family and just down the road from Cowee School Arts & Heritage Center. “I love how the folks at Cowee hold community rooted in nature and creativity of all types.”

Cricket’s degrees are in biology and graphic design, and in a way, that sums up the myriad of seemingly disparate jobs she’s worked, including skinning birds, fixing computers, guiding by horseback, assisting a veterinarian, framing art, building websites, playing music, designing and proofreading books for independent authors. And, like her father, Doug Woodward of Franklin, NC, she’s been a photographer all her life — including work in portraits, events, products, art and photojournalism.

Now that she’s nearly retired, Cricket creates more music and art. The band she’s part of in NC, Bloodroot, is known for their sweet harmony vocals. And she keeps adding various forms to her multi-media art: handmaking prints and bookforms, weaving, sumi ink, metal, art photography … that’s why she calls herself an “ampersand person.” 

For her, it’s all about exploring and capturing the essence of connection: humans to each other and all beings of our world. She seeks the how and the beauty. The why and the awe.

lynnwoodwardphotography.com