An elder among Passamaquoddy artisans has died. Clara Neptune Keezer was nationally recognized as a native basketmaker and teacher.
"Clara's baskets are really special because they are colorful and sometimes whimsical," says Julia Gray, director of collections at the Abbe Museum in Bar Harbor. "She kind of revitalized the practice of creating these fruit and vegetable baskets."
Gray says basketmaking had languished for the latter half of the 20th century, and the basket being made tended to be more conservative in form. But Keezer, she says, took inspiration from 19th century Passamaquoddy knitting baskets known as strawberry baskets - called so because they're designed to look like the fruits - and put her own spin on them.
"So she wove baskets shaped like strawberries or blueberries. Or we have one that's a pumpkin - a great big pumpkin basket - and they're colorful and they have fancy curls on them," Gray says. "And even her non-fruit baskets are often very colorful."
Keezer, a founding member of the Maine Indian Basketmakers Alliance, won a National Endowment for the Arts Heritage Fellowship in 2002 for her work.
Using the traditional materials of split brown ash and sweet grass, Keezer is credited with helping to preserve an important piece of Passamaquoddy culture.
Keezer passed away Tuesday, Aug. 2, just one day shy of her 86th birthday.
