On Thursday this last week, we got to hear about what inspires and influences Ruthie. Ruthie is the head of the Core Studio Concepts class, which I am taking this semester, as previously mentioned. It was great to see her work as well as hear about the places she looks to for inspiration.
A large portion of Ruthie's work stems from process books...I'm starting to see how useful these things could be! Her work is heavily influenced by natural, organic shapes and forms. A portion of her work at one point was influenced by the rubber of inner tubes. She used that material in ways I definitely would not have expected nor thought of on my own. I loved her use of innertubing as a flooring of sorts, when she cut them apart then laid them out to exhibit their texture as they folded, as well as adding an interactive portion. I personally love interactive sculpture, and the fact that she provided galoshes for people to use to walk across the material was very cool to me.
One thing from her presentation that stuck with me the most was when she talked about her "Two Dot Spot" and what started happening to her work after the acquired the studio in Two Dot, Montana. She really made me realize the importance of having a place that you love to do your work. A place where you can really breathe, where you can freely let the art flow out of you.
She told us about her adventures into drawing, spurred on by her friend and fellow artist, who encouraged her and challenged her to branch out. Now, her place in Montana gets a ton of sun. So, one day as she was frusterated at an assignment given, she stumbled upon the shadow cast by a plant on her desk onto the blank paper she stared at. She began tracing shadows of everyday objects - branches, stencils, bones, grass- onto paper and canvas. I love that she came upon a big part of her work by sheer happenstance. Sun and shadow influenced her to continue her work, to search out objects everyday and to capture their fleeting and ever changing crisp shadow. The work was very thought provoking. To think that, everytime a shadow she was tracing moved, it indicated exactly how much we are rotating during the day. Very cool works. :)
I can't wait to see more of our professor's work!
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