(Nancy Guppy) Seattle is home to many great artists.
That said, there are a few that are in a class of their own,
and one of those few is with us today, Ginny Ruffner.
It's great to see you.
(Ginny Ruffner) Hi Nancy, good to see you.
-You have been making art for many, many, many, many years.
Most of your life and you do very a variety of things.
Talk about the kind of things you do.
-One of the main things I make
is bronze and glass sculpture, in which I am
trying to hybridize
things that don't have genes
or don't usually reproduce,
say, for example, forces
and the things
that might shape, how certain things become what they are.
-So taking things that normally wouldn't be together
and putting them together.
What is it about that that interests you?
-Oh, it’s really intriguing to me that
recent developments in genetic engineering.
So I'm doing my own spin on it.
It's the “Aesthetic Engineering” series.
-“Aesthetic Engineering,” that's such a great title.
And that was at the Bellevue Arts Museum. That's that show, right?
Yeah, I think we promoted that at one point.
It's a beautiful show.
-Thank you.
-And you also do and have done a lot of public art projects,
and you've got a really big one coming up in the spring
at Seventh and Union. What's it called?
-It's called the “Urban Garden.”
I’ve been working on it for about seven years.
It's a kinetic, 28-foot-tall, steel water feature.
It’s a flower pot that that every five minutes or
so the watering can on top tilts, and waters the
big flowers.
-So it kind of tips, right?
-Yeah.
-Tips and waters it.
And then it kind of flows through.
-And the flowers open, close, and spin.
-It's like.
It's like a fantasy.
-I hope so. And I put a window in the side of the flower pot
so you can see what's going on.
-You can look in and kind of watch all the workings of it.
Oh great. That's really, really cool.
Yeah. The images of it are just so beautiful.
So I want to talk to you about the the bigger picture of your work.
You've been on the national
and the international stage for most of your career.
There was that Absolut Vodka.
Absolut Ruffner ad.
So you're well known.
And then just recently, last year, in 2010, a film,
a documentary was made about your life,
“Ginny Ruffner: A Not So Still Life.”
-Hey, how are you?
-You're the queen of something.
-Ginny’s whole life is art.
I mean, it's a work of art.
The way she decorates every room
in her home, her gardens, the way she dresses.
And last but not least, her hair.
-How was that for you?
What do you think of that film?
-I like it a lot.
They did a great job.
I didn't do anything.
They did all the work and they didn't let me see it.
Even see it until about a week before the premiere.
-And it was. It premiered at Seattle International Film Festival.
-Yeah.
-So you were surprised essentially with what it was going to be?
-I was happily so.
It was
like it turned out great.
-For me, what was really interesting, too, is seeing so much footage
before your accident and then, of course,
a lot of footage after your accident.
But seeing kind of
those two sides of you because I didn't know you before the accident.
-I'm an idealist.
I think if you're an artist, you're an idealist.
You have to be.
There's no other reason
to make art than out of sheer, unadulterated idealism.
And that spills over into other parts of your life.
You just have to be a little bit
more discreet about which parts you let it influence. (laughs)
-What was that like for you?
Does that affect you at all?
-That was interesting to me.
But for me, the accident is yesterday’s news, I’m so far beyond that.
-Old hat.
In the movie
much the work that is shown, I would say nine tenths of the artwork
they show is was done after the accident.
-See, that's really amazing to me.
So you've been you continue
to make out these really beautiful, tiny things and gigantic things.
Physicality doesn't affect your art,
your physicality, you continue just to soldier on and make it.
-An artist is an artist.
-Yeah, yeah, yeah.
-I love to try things I’ve never done before.
Part of the reason I wrote those books.
-Right, as a, as a writer as well.
So you're kind of a renaissance lady.
-Well, I don’t know about that.
-With great hair.
-(Laughs) Yeah, that's
the whole secret to my success. Two things:
My hair and eating black-eyed peas on New Year’s Day.
-That’s right, the black-eyed peas thing.
You talk about that in the film.
-For every black-eyed pea you eat on New Year's Day, it's
a dollar you'll earn during the coming year.
-Yeah, we share that Southern heritage.
And every New Year’s I call her, or she calls me to inquire
if we’re eating black-eyed peas.
-Gosh, it's good to see you hon.
Thank you so much for coming in, Ginny, what a delight.
-My pleasure.
-You make this city a better place.
-Thank you so much.
-You're welcome. And now I want your hair.