Artist Statement

Process and growth keeps me engaged with the clay.

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Pull, push, pinch, swirl, paddle, stroke, stretch, roll; so many ways to form clay. Forms constantly evolving, emerging in my work with clay. I continually want to find new ways to touch and manipulate the clay. Movements that are committed to muscle memory and movements of flinging freely to continuously shape and reshape each form.   Engaging drawing skills also impress upon the forms a reflection of my world. Feeling the movement from one form to another with skill, joy, and infatuation. A life-long journey.

Biography

At age 40, Ruby suffered a stroke that made it difficult to walk, talk, and take care of her three children. In order to recover better, her family moved from Homer to Missouri. Ruby began to recover slowly, taking short bike rides down the road to the nearest landmark, a clay studio and manufacturing center.

Curiosity led her to eventually go inside and her eye locked on someone using a kickwheel. She initially saw it as a tool to build strength in the leg affected by the stroke. The more time she spent sitting, kicking, watching, the more she wanted to learn about what the ceramic artists were doing there. 

She spent 3 years under Jerry Roberts’ tutelage in Missouri before moving back to Homer in 1997. Ruby and her husband Tim built the studio, store, and their family home. In the early years, Ruby split her creative time with working in the schools with students who were deaf or had intensive needs. Now, her small businesses, her garden, and her grandchildren occupy most of her time, and she gets help running the studio and store from apprentices. Tourists, art collectors, old friends and curious visitors all stop by the shop to see what the storefront has to offer.