Ruth Wallen

Artist Statement / Bio

Ruth Wallen is a multi-media artist and writer whose work is dedicated to encouraging dialogue around ecological and social justice. After working as an environmental scientist, she turned to art to pose questions beyond disciplinary boundaries, address values informing environmental policy, and contribute to the developing field of ecological art. Her photographs, interactive installations, nature walks, web sites, artist books, performative lectures, and essays have been widely published and exhibited.

Active in the border region, she was a member of the multinational artist collective Las Comadres, a Fulbright Lecturer at the Autonomous University of Baja California, Tijuana and continues to serve on the steering committee of Binational Association of Schools of Communication. She served as chair and core faculty in the MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts Program at Goddard College for many years, helping to develop an innovative program for student-centered learning, as well as a lecturer in the Visual Arts Department of the University of California, San Diego.

Her current work involves bearing witness with trees dying from urbanization, globalization, and climate change in all its guises, including drought, bark beetles and fire. She shares her experiences in the form of writing, photography, and interactive sculptures inviting offerings to the trees. Her sumptuous photomontages, combining different perspectives, are a labor of love expressing the vibrancy of each place she visits. She is working on writing a book, “Walking with Trees,” synthesizing her insights from artistic and scientific training and Buddhist practice.

Artist Social

• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ruth.wallen.35
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/listentotrees/