David Ruth, Geologic Editions and Sculpture
David Ruth together with Al’Myra present The Geologic Editions & Sculptures in cast glass. David Ruth is a San Francisco Bay Area artist who is internationally known for setting cast glass in architectural spaces. Melding the transcendence of light, the sensitivity of contemporary sculpture and the ancient art of glassmaking, David Ruth’s artworks inspire viewers to see new possibilities in form color and imagery. Ruth’s glass sculptures and his architectural glass murals showcase technical prowess and artistic mastery as they use patterns of geology to tell human and time-based stories through the wonder of natural light and the movement of the sun.
Ruth’s work has a rare, unrefined power that is unique to architectural scale in glass. His work challenges world-class architects and designers to push the boundaries of industrial glass into plastic, sculptural form. Ruth is an expert in creating dimensional cast glass for a wide range of applications in design, color, surface texture, internal space and form. Working with architects, designers, developers, contractors, art professionals and private clients to complete complex projects is his specialty.
The Geologic Editions are studies for the Colorado Cascade mural in a variety of colors that reflect the research into making this historical work. Cast glass in a series of twelve sculptural panels, in editions of five (except for #9 which is an edition of seven) each of the series represents another aspect of this initial search for combinations that inform the larger design. The result manifests a story of light and time, layers of events on daily, seasonal, geologic and planetary time scales, apparent in viewing these works over even a short time. They are always changing in the light.
Private clients commissioned David Ruth to create a 21-foot (7-meter) cast glass window for a house designed by KH Webb Architects of Vail, Colorado. Colorado Cascade Mural, is a composite of rock and ice forms from Antarctica and California in thirty interlocking panels with shimmering relief.
“The Colorado Cascade Mural is a two story series of thirty panels that are mostly cast from a road cut near my studio plus areas of ice and rock from Antarctica. An arrow-like form comes from the upper left corner, and points to the center. These molds were from my American National Science Foundation, Antarctic Artists and Writers Program grant in 2006 for a project of taking rubber texture molds directly off the glacier ice and rock at Palmer Station, Antarctica.”—David Ruth
Norsel: this block was the first piece I made upon my return from Palmer Station, Antarctica, the scene of my National Science Foundation Antarctic Artists and Writers Program grant in 2006. The project was to take texture molds of the glacier ice and stone for later use in compositing sculptures in the studio. The central texture in Norsel was taken from a granitic rock at the shore of Arthur Harbor on Anvers Island, where Palmer Station is located. The ice texture was from a “bergie bit,” a small fragment of glacier ice that we fished out of the sea. The name Norsel, itself, is from one of the five or so points of land that jut into the sea off the southern end of Anvers Island.” —David Ruth
