Dudley Carter

Dudley Carter-possibly the most famous artist you've never heard of... 

". . . a lively and loving portrait of the great Northwest master, capturing the life and work of an artist as powerful as the ancient forests from which he drew his strength and inspiration." (Leonard Garfield, Executive Director, Museum of History & Industry, Seattle)

Dudley Carter: Tales of the Legendary Wood Sculptor combines hundreds of photographs of Carter's works with over fifty fascinating stories about him. Dudley's family, friends, notable fellow artists, architects, journalists, historians, patrons, business magnates, educators-people whose lives were impacted by their personal association with Dudley or by their connection to some of his works-recount his illustrious century-long life, a life that was undoubtedly his finest masterpiece.

In 1932 Dudley Christopher Carter, a forty-year-old mini Paul Bunyan, literally hewed his way out of the forest primeval and into the sophisticated world of art. Carter's first experiment in monumental wood sculpture, Rivalry of the Winds, inspired by a legend important to the Northwest Coast Duwamish people, was purchased by the Seattle Art Museum.

Born into a pioneering logging family in 1891, as a teen Dudley lived with his family among the Kwakiutl people at Alert Bay in British Columbia. There he acquired a deep appreciation for Native art and culture. That appreciation is readily apparent in many of the fine works Dudley created over his lifetime.

In 1947 Carter was the subject of a Life magazine article and a Paramount Pictures film. Reams of newspaper articles about the artist appeared over the years. His fame and reputation continued to grow, and by the 1970s he had amassed a reputation as a fine artist who commanded lucrative commissions for dozens of public art projects and private collections throughout western North America. At the age of 96, Dudley Carter was named the first ever artist in residence for Washington State's King County Parks. Carter's prolific career spanned six enthralling decades, ending in 1992 when he died at the age of 100 with dozens of works still in progress.