Ruth Ingham speaks at BBR Art Guild

Ruth Ingham, artist and Sisters resident for 29 years, was BBR Art Guild's final speaker of the season.

Describing Ingham as an artist seems like a limited definition of her vast skills. Ingham has been a fashion designer, pattern maker, and quilter. Add to that, an artist on canvas utilizing mediums like oil pastels, oils, and acrylics.

Ingham has a clothing design degree from Carnegie Mellon University and two degrees in fine arts from Marylhurst University in Oregon.

Ingham also has the distinction of being the only quilt appraiser in Oregon.

"She can look at an old quilt and tell the age of the fabrics and provide the date of the quilt," said Lynda Sullivan, guild president. "She also tells us how to preserve quilts, how to wash them. Never keep them in plastic. Don't hang them on a line, lay them flat. Don't have them in the direct sun. She also gave us advice about what to do with a damaged quilt, such as using pieces of the quilt to make other things."

Joellyn Loehr, who selects the guild's monthly speaker, talked about Ingham.

"I had heard her name forever, and I finally met her while interviewing Sisters High School seniors for scholarships. She impressed me so much with her depth of knowledge. She has so many facets, I wanted to learn more about her.

"One of the things that most impresses me is that she is the most passionate advocate for the arts. She has traveled all over the world, collecting things and viewing things that she incorporates into her art," Loehr said.

Ingham's walk through the arts began in the world of fashion.

"During the Korean War I worked for the NBC affiliate in Cleveland," Ingham said. "Everything was live. I worked for a woman's program. A woman who was a pioneer from NY Living Fashion, Maggie Byrne, was on the show. I designed patterns and she would make something every day and I modeled it. She was a milliner also, so we made a lot of hats, which I designed."

Ingham lived in Saudi Arabia for 16 years, where she taught art to kindergarten through grade nine. The children were from a variety of cultures and had a parent who worked for her husband's employer, Aramco. Among the subjects she taught: clothing design and textiles, ceramics, painting, sand casting, paper work, cut paper, weaving, jewelry making, paper making, dyes and embroidery.

"When I lived in Saudi, I'd go to Thailand and buy Thai silk," Ingham said, "and we'd make garments from that. I love the handmade fabrics of Africa and the Far East, and they are each so different. Places like Syria, Turkey, and Jordan all have wonderful woven fabrics."

Ingham shared many tales from her world travels.

"She was in one country, and all her fabrics were stolen the day she was leaving," Loehr said after Ingham's presentation to the guild. "Locals went out and bought more fabric for her, so she filled her suitcases with fabric and left her clothes behind."

Ingham often creates multi-media quilts, adding painting, fabric, stones, incorporating materials she has gathered around the world.

"I try to tell a story with my quilts," Ingham says. "I've been to all the places the fabric or subject matter came from. I've been to Africa six or eight times. I went to Timbuktu one time. It's a real place, a dusty place. I bought fabric in the country Timbuktu is in. Mali is the country south of Morocco. I bought batiks and mud cloth there. It's coarse fabric dyed with mud on a river bank."

Ingham doesn't paint as much anymore, but says she still enjoys collage or mono print paint on glass or plastic. Paper is pressed onto the painted surface.

"It's very spontaneous and I tend to be spontaneous about my art," Ingham said.

Viewing a collection of her art reveals a variety ranging from realism to abstract. Beads added to one piece are said to represent the little finger of Buddha. One quilt tells the story of an elephant in Botswana she followed for four days while he was dying of anthrax.

"He died next to water and an alligator was about to eat him," Ingham said. "So to prevent the anthrax spores from spreading, we had the rangers remove the carcass."

Ingham's work will be on display at the Sisters Public Library in July, and also at Black Butte Ranch.

She frequently teaches classes at Stitchin' Post in Sisters and worked for Jean Wells for 22 years in the old store.