Forty years in sculpture and twenty years in arts administration are currently coming together for Ruth Waters as she heads a campaign to develop The Silicon Valley Art Museum in San Mateo County. Ms. Waters, a Seattle native, graduated from Stanford University in 1955 and started working in hardwoods in 1957 (her mediums now include marble, onyx, bronze, and constructed room-size sculpture).

Founder and director of the 1870 Art Center in Belmont (since 1977), a complex of working studios for 30 visual artists plus gallery, she is also a co-founder of the Peninsula Sculptors’ Guild; a co-founder and board member of the Redwood City Art Center; and an allied member of the American Institute of Architects.

Ms. Waters is also a co-founder and the president of ARTshare, a coalition of cultural organizations in San Mateo County. ARTshare is the organization sponsoring the Art Museum project.

Thoughts:

Duality-inward and outward, lives evolve, responding equally to the external world and the internal mind. Both sensual and spiritual, the whole is stronger and more beautiful than either element alone.

My process as I explored the connection between the ceramic mask provided and the Honduras mahogany wood, which seemed to complement it, afforded me great pleasure. Carving, sanding, and finishing the hardwood and then combining it with the ceramic mask put me in touch with manifestations of the Earth's essential elegance.