POTTER-ARTIST BEATRICE WOOD, 105.Byline: Louinn Lota Associated Press Associated Press: see news agency. Associated Press (AP) Cooperative news agency, the oldest and largest in the U.S. and long the largest in the world. Beatrice Wood, a celebrated potter and freethinking free·think·er n. One who has rejected authority and dogma, especially in religious thinking, in favor of rational inquiry and speculation. free artist - known as the ``Mama of Dada'' - whose spunky spunk·y adj. spunk·i·er, spunk·i·est Informal Spirited; plucky. spunk  i·ly adv. character became the prototype for the elderly Rose in the movie ``Titanic,'' died Thursday at her Ojai home. She was 105. ``She went peacefully surrounded by friends and loved ones in her own bed, in her own home, the way she wanted to,'' said Nanci Martinez, Wood's assistant at her ceramics studio. Wood died just a week after celebrating her 105th birthday, marked by 250 well-wishers. She recently met ``Titanic'' director James Cameron and actress Gloria Stuart, who fashioned the role of 101-year-old Rose after Wood. Wood was born in San Francisco on March 3, 1893, and was raised in New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of . At 18, she moved to Europe to study drama. She returned to New York during World War I where her first love was Henri-Pierre Roche, author and diplomat. She soon became involved with Marcel Duchamp, a central figure in the Dada movement, a protest art style founded in 1916. Known as the ``Mama of Dada,'' Wood in 1923 joined the Theosophical Society, which believes the truth comes from communing with the divine. She moved to Los Angeles five years later. In 1937, she opened a studio on Sunset Boulevard. She had her first exhibition at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1940. In 1948, she moved to Ojai, where she established a studio and became involved with The Happy Valley Foundation, whose founders included British author Aldous Huxley and Krishnamurti, the Indian philosopher and a leader of the Theosophical Society. In 1985, she published an autobiography, ``I Shock Myself,'' which inspired Cameron to center the ``Titanic'' tale around the life of an aging artist. Wood's ceramic work features iridescent ir·i·des·cent adj. 1. Producing a display of lustrous, rainbowlike colors: an iridescent oil slick; iridescent plumage. 2. and lustrous lus·trous adj. 1. Having a sheen or glow. 2. Gleaming with or as if with brilliant light; radiant. See Synonyms at bright. lus glazes applied to teapots, bowls and chalices as well as whimsical figures and animal forms. Her often racy rac·y adj. rac·i·er, rac·i·est 1. Having a distinctive and characteristic quality or taste. 2. Strong and sharp in flavor or odor; piquant or pungent. 3. Risqué; ribald. 4. and satirical pieces command as much as $40,000 each. She was also known for her drawings and sketchbooks. In 1994, the Smithsonian Institution named her ``Esteemed American Artist'' and California Gov. Pete Wilson declared her a ``California Living Treasure.'' |
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