Ruth Laxson An Oral History

[0:11] Well, I'm sure I was sent to this planet as an artist, I'm convinced. Mm-hmm. got off to a very slow start. I got off to no start really, because I grew up on a farm. in a large family. There was no art in our schools. not a trace of any art being taught in our schools. So-- Occasionally, I heard the names of some old masters like Michelangelo and Rembrandt, and I thought, "Artist, artist," was sort of the idea stuck in my head, but It was a whole big mystery.

[0:52] So-- Also, there was no money for me to go to school. arts school So I did go on graduating from high school. I went to Auburn University, but not to study art. to study business sort of Support. myself. Oh. that was you know, still. still not thinking about not imaging myself as an artist yet at all. I was there a very short time. and then came back, I came back to where my parents lived in Alabama. This was the farm was in Alabama, and And so then I found my way to Atlanta, The artist in me was beginning to stir a little by now, so I went to Atlanta College of Art, but not to get a full degree. I just went to sort of studying what I needed to to learn.

[1:53] And I noticed that and at the same time I was starting to just draw or do whatever I could on my own. And, um... So I noticed that-- I never used what I learned and going to classes at Atlanta College of Art. I never used that in my work when I would work on my own except for printmaking. that really drew me And so I just think there was a natural printmaker sensibility there that I needed to pursue.

[2:32] That was when ACA was down in that old warehouse down on Pine, near Pine Street. Norman Wagner had just come to ACA and So he gave me. So I learned from him. the base of basics of edging, which was the medium that I really the printmaking medium that I really was drawn to. That would be about mid-60s, I don't know what year. Printmaking instinct was really sort of beginning to take me over and I did large color woodcuts that first work that got any notice.

[3:07] Um-- any by galleries or anybody. collectors. Yeah, it was the late 70s that I got interested in handmade paper. It was very satisfying at first to think, oh wow, hey, I made a piece paper myself with Slap. from sloshy Paul. And I actually went to the Twin Walker paper mill in Indiana two times.

[3:47] to work with them to try to create some pieces that were worthy of The thing that Did It did do, that experience did for me, was put me in touch with the network for artist books. is just simple little, um, black and white book title So-- power poem. about power in our lives. And the second one was a Cheers.

[4:18] giant step because I used etchings and print letterpress, That was-- And the letterpress was done at Atlanta College of Art, because it was before I got my my own letterpress Mm-hmm. for Esther. Oh. And, um... It was a small edition of 12. And it was, it got, um... into the New York Public Library, into the moment it got into Good Collections right away. And I thought, "Well, Ruth, you know, maybe you're on a good track." So...

[4:57] The body of work that I think was, that I felt best about and was probably the most successful were those parcel paintings. Remember those? They looked like I'm packages or parcels. You even had string tied. They would wrap the string and they had a label-like image on there and words. Because I was thinking about when you receive something in the mail, a package or a letter or anything, it's a page of information.

[5:29] Handle carefully, you know. various instructions on there. So that was the idea behind that. those paintings. But that, again, I stopped midstream because I think I felt almost like I had exhausted that idea. And plus the books. were nagging at me. Male art is important to me because it's an impulsive thing. It's Going. It's not work to go in a show.

[6:00] something you send out in the world. when you don't know always whether it'll arrive, you just, it's a You know, it's like a little gift. But you don't... And you don't always expect a reply, but you usually do get one and so you develop one. few little art male buddies Benjamin Jones is my main male art friend. At first, before he became such a star, he would send me...

[6:34] really send little drawings and he would build and put his postcard around one of his wonderful drawings. in Brooklyn. who was really-- major David. He would send me envelopes that were painted-- the envelopes the actual paintings. it was a very active interaction. Um. between us. And do you know the post office, there was a man at the post office who asked Oh, they're very good.

[7:07] had he asked Bob to ask me if he could have some of those envelopes if I didn't want them. I did a book at Nexpress titled "Hope Must Go." Equals It had a physics element in it, but lots of color. After that I launched myself on my own because I got help. The director of Nexus Press helped me find my letterpress. I got my own press.

[7:47] which was in 1986. Seven. Um... I did the first book off that press was Measure, Cut, Stitch. because I was in a process of thinking about measuring, how we measure in our lives. in so many ways. and uh said when I got to the caliph on in the back and I had to put where it was printed and the name of the press. I was asking friends to help me think what can I name My press.

[8:21] Because I had an etching press too, so I really had a working press going and uh So nobody came up with anything satisfactory. So I got to thinking, I was 63 years old the year I got depressed. Why not call it 63 plus? In the early 90s, it was a very vigorous part of producing. time for me. - I did.

[8:51] after that. measure cut stitch I did about change about. But then in the early 90s I did about Bye. I did a book a year. That work got me, those books got into collections. you know, really important collections in this country and in Canada and a couple of Europe and now England. I think of the garden as completing my rhythms. We all have a sort of set of rhythms going on that we may not be aware of.

[9:28] And-- It is-- It satisfies a side of-- The art is more cerebral. in When I work in the studio, I'm using that part of It is emotional too, but the garden is another whole set of feelings that it's that I have satisfied by working in And this thing about beauty, I have an extra quotient of need for beauty I think because When I sit, my eyes need to scan on beauty.

[10:09] slowly became a very important part of my art. the cases that are-- constructed that go in there. or an example. That's sculpture. you know Sure it is. And sculpture. kinds of sculpture are a part of my work. In talking about the different materials you use, I was sitting here and I was remembering going to a performance that you were a part of at the Cannon Chapel at the Emory University.

[10:46] and I think it was a performance Chip Epps. No. It was Bruce Hampton. The main musician. Wild creative. mad kind of musician and who asks a few of his friends to Oh, and... Dave. And we had done a tape, Dick Robinson and I had done a tape, positions were to play off that tape also, sort of do their own thing, but knowing Bruce, he kind of got lost.

[11:28] They were up in the rafters. They were his musicians. Oh, look at him. I did Um. That little book sculpture down there was part of it. The audience was on the deck and I was walking back and forth with I had a text. in my hand and I walked back and forth. I had sound hooked to me that Dick Robinson helped me develop to. I had on a gossamer kind of a top with a So. Take two me.

[12:00] and it had some nature. - Nine othing, and then just a few of minor collaboration. that was Dick Higgins. Uh-huh. where My voice was manipulated. electronic And you know, I think of it as a big responsibility. Being an artist is a big responsibility because you can just as well be making lovely nissi There's beauty.

[12:33] I think that You know we had no pattern. we have to trust our own I and our own judgment, and we have to know when to Plunge in. sort of assume the authority to be an artist.