Artwork copyright Ginny Ruffner. Photo courtesy of the artist.

Artwork copyright Ginny Ruffner. Photo courtesy of Washington State Arts Commission, 2021.

Xray of a Bedouin Vegomatic, 1986

Ginny Ruffner
American (born 1952, died 2025)

Location: Pierce College - Fort Steilacoom, Lakewood

About the Artwork

Artist Ginny Ruffner created Xray of a Bedouin Vegomatic after she had a vivid dream. The dream was set in a Bedouin nomadic encampment on the Jordan River in the Middle East. The sculpture references a device in Ruffner's dream, that was used in their kitchens to mix cornmeal. Ruffner created the whimsical sculpture using a lampworking technique. The glass pieces were heated over a torch, and then bent and shaped using tools and gravity. She painted the glass sculpture, blasting away some of the paint so that it looks like a translucent x-ray.

This artwork was acquired for the State Art Collection in partnership with Pierce College District.

About the Artist

Born in Atlanta, Ruffner earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree (1974) and a Master of Fine Arts degree (1975) in painting from the University of Georgia. By the mid 1980s, Ruffner was living in Seattle, teaching at Pilchuck Glass School (in Stanwood, Northwestern Washington), and part of the studio glass movement. Her artworks are in many collections, including the Corning Museum of Glass in New York State and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. Ruffner founded the SOLA (Support Old Lady Artists) Awards in 2016, given annually to Washington State female-identified visual artists, age sixty or over, who have dedicated twenty-five years or more to creating art. In 2019, she had a solo exhibition "Reforestation of the Imagination" at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington D.C. In 2023, Ruffner was honored with a Washington State Governor's Arts and Heritage Award. She is also the subject of an award-winning documentary "A Not So Still Life, the Ginny Ruffner Story" (2010).