Ruth Hargreaves

The Artist

Despite having always loved making things with my hands, visiting galleries and museums, enrolling in art classes, and looking at the world around me with an artful eye, I have never, until recently, considered myself an artist. The label feels very new and strange. New also is my discovery (or the cessation of denial) that art and the creation of it, in whatever medium or style, is absolutely vital to defining who I am. It is my passion and without it I feel incomplete.

Six years ago I emerged from a thirty-year self-imposed exile in my own creative wasteland, executing very few works, trying rather unsuccessfully to vicariously keep my artistic inclinations alive. My renewed interests cover a wide range but primarily focus on abstract and the exploration of texture, color, and emotion. These works are primarily spontaneous and experimental, the result of giving myself permission to be open and responsive to whatever may occur. While being exciting, surprising, rewarding, and enjoyable, this, for me, involves a steep learning curve and has its share of angst.

While abstraction will remain my central focus, I periodically need to return to realism. The tight control comes easily to me, is comfortable and fairly predictable in outcome. In a word, "safe". Balancing between these two styles represents the dichotomous position in which I find myself both as an artist and as a woman in society. My art is a personal journey.

Ruth Hargreaves

September, 2006

Solo Exhibitions:

2003 "Tabletop Viewings", Gallery 105 and Sand Creek Grill, Sandpoint, ID; invitational

2004 "Art Walk II", Pend d'Oreille Arts Council, Sandpoint, ID; juried

2004 "Art at Ivano's", Pend d'Oreille Arts Council, Sandpoint, ID; invitational

2006 "Art Walk I", Pend d'Oreille Arts Council, Sandpoint, ID; juried

Group Exhibitions:

2003 "Opening Windows: An Introspective Journey of Women", PEARL Gallery, Dallas, OR; juried

2003 "Changes in the Weather", Pend d'Oreille Arts Council Gallery, Sandpoint, ID; non-juried

2004 "Purely POAC", Pend d'Oreille Arts Council Gallery, Sandpoint, ID; non-juried

2004 "Art of Survival", Tenth Street YWCA, Portland, OR; invitational

2005 "Prints", Pend d'Oreille Arts Council Gallery, Sandpoint, ID; non-juried

2005 Eklektos Gallery and Design Center, Sandpoint, ID; invitational

2005 "Art Walk", Pend d'Oreille Arts Council, Sandpoint, ID; juried

2006 "Outskirts Gallery", Hope, ID

2006 "In the Mind's Eye", Pend Oreille Arts Council, Sandpoint, ID; invitational

Honors:

2004 Commissioned painting of award-winning Syrah for Pend d'Oreille Winery, Sandpoint, ID

This image was also chosen for the front of their Birthday Club cards.

2005 Commissioned painting of 2002 Chardonnay for Pend d'Oreille Winery, Sandpoint, ID

2005 Poster artist for "The Healing Garden" benefit gala,

Bonner General Hospital and Hospice, Sandpoint, ID

Publications:

"The Voice", Vol XI, Number VIII, Lake Puett, January 2004, "Cover Artist"

2006 "Art for the Soul" brochure, Bonner General Hospital, Sandpoint, ID; "Cover Artist"

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