When woodcut artist Ruth Kirchmeier talks about her life, the words "fortunate," "obsessed," and "persistent" proliferate. At 73, she says she is living the life she loves: a life shared with partner Nelson Bryant, surrounded by friends and family, continually inspired by Martha's Vineyard's natural beauty; and spent in lifelong passionate engagement with the arts.
Ruth Kirchmeier is an artist – a painter, a draughtsman, a gardener – but it is as a printmaker that she is in her métier. As an observer and friend of over 20 years, and as her dealer for several of those years, I am struck by the "all of a piece" quality of Ruth's life. Her woodcuts are her most recognized artistic achievement, and justly so. They are complex and descriptive, the lines and marks, the overlays and underlays of colors.