Ruth Penington Brought Activism To Her Art Career

Seattle artisan Ruth Esther Penington leaves behind more than daring metalcraft inspired by cultures of and beyond the Northwest coast.

She leaves the now-accepted notion that well-made crafts, utilitarian or not, have a place among traditional fine arts - a notion made legitimate by her work and activism.

She showed her work in galleries from Seattle to Cincinnati and Baltimore, earning excellent reviews in art journals and newspapers. She also organized crafts exhibitions and lobbied galleries to include crafts.

A 1983 story in the American Art Journal identified her as "an American pioneer in the field of modern jewelry and metalwork."

Miss Penington died Tuesday of a stroke. She was 92.

Her nephew Gregory Penington of Issaquah described her as "a single-minded, strong individual who never married" and stuck to her own vision and standards, demanding similar dedication from her students at the University of Washington and at an art school she ran in La Conner.

She told one student who forgot his homework, "Don't worry about it." Then she flunked him.

She also helped build a home and studio for herself north of Deception Pass State Park.

Born in Colorado Springs but reared in Seattle, she showed early talent, discipline and resourcefulness. Taking a cue from her dressmaker mother, she sewed doll clothes, and also made dishes from clay she had dug herself.

She was class valedictorian at Seattle's Lincoln High School. She earned her art degree at the UW in the mid-1920s and taught there while her work was shown at the Seattle Art Museum.

Later she earned a master's degree in art at Columbia University and studied in Europe and Asia. She gleaned ideas from other cultures - Byzantine, Viking, pre-Columbian - that she used in her own jewelry, goblets and candleholders.

She liked silver and other metals because, as she said, "Metal can be made richer on the surface and is freer in form than just drawing."

Her favorite styles were either richly encrusted works of great delicacy, or large-scale works rendered architecturally. She used spindle whorls, trade beads and amulets as well as Northwest stones and feathers.

Deloris Tarzan Ament, then The Seattle Times visual-arts critic, wrote in 1990, "Her work marries the clean geometric lines we often associate with Scandinavian designers with a sense of the archaic; it is the sort of aesthetic that sets chunks of amber into massive silver pieces that look as if they could have been unearthed from a barbarian horde."

Miss Penington helped found the Northwest Printmakers Society, Northwest Designer Craftsmen and Friends of the Crafts in Seattle, and the World Craft Council in New York City. She also helped establish the Northwest Crafts Exhibition at the UW in 1950, belonged to the American Craftsmen Educational Council, and was a trustee emeritus and fellow of the American Crafts Council.

Other survivors include her sister-in-law, Edith Penington of San Antonio, Texas; and her foster sister, Vera Zimmerman of Renton.

Services have been held. Remembrances may go to any charity.

Carole Beers' phone message number is 206-464-2391. Her e-mail address is: cbee-new@seatimes.com