February 12th was Ruth Asawa Day in San Francisco and reminded writer Dominique Pacheco of the times she spent with the creative force of nature.

“Art is for everybody,” Ruth Asawa says. It’s a statement that personifies the Ruth Asawa I knew in the 80s and 90s in San Francisco. In those days, she was everywhere. A fireball of endless energy who saw the possibility of creativity in a simple dollar bill, folded into complex origami she learned from Buckminster Fuller at Black Mountain College.

“It is not something that you should have to go to the museums in order to see and enjoy,” she continues. “When I work on big projects, such as a fountain, I like to include people who haven’t yet developed their creative side, people yearning to let their creativity out. I like designing projects that make people feel safe, not afraid to get involved.”

Dozens of face masks of friends and family mark the entrance to the home she created with her architect husband and six children. Her belief in and love of education is felt at the Ruth Asawa School of the Arts, founded by Asawa and others 30 years ago, remaining San Francisco’s only public arts high school.

Asawa is now in her 80’s and seeing a resurgence of interest in her complex wire sculptures, revered by a new audience for their organic process, natural shapes and authentic resonance.

I remember her telling a story of living on a farm in Norwalk, California as a young child before she and her Japanese family were interned during World War II. She would sit on the back of a tractor tracing shapes with her feet in the freshly plowed dirt; shapes that would later become the sinuous and bulbous sculpture she wove from wire.

Asawa continues to be loved by generations who feel her influence at so many levels. With her tremendous body of work, may she continue to grace us with her vision long after her prolific output ceases.

Asawa’s son Paul and Harry S. Parker of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco speak about Ruth Asawa, the exhibition marking the re-opening of the DeYoung Museum and her life.

Inspired by a post on Synaptic Stimuli.

Eco, trends, art, creativity and how they tumble through social media to shape culture fascinate EcoSalon columnist Dominique Pacheco. Her trends blog, mixingreality, speaks to these topics daily, and here at EcoSalon, she takes a weekly look at the intersection of eco and art. We call it heARTbeat.

The post heARTbeat: Ruth Asawa’s Wire Sculptures for the Ages appeared first on EcoSalon.