In every generation, we sense that some people are forward-looking while others weigh the import of history as a guide for their lives. Some few, however, we recognize as links between our common past and what is yet to be. Just such a link is Ford Ruthling.

Ruthling's mother was employed by the family of William Penhollow Henderson. His family counted John Sloan among its intimates. Ruthling studied art at the University of New Mexico with Randall Davey. After a lengthy tour of duty in the military, Ruthling became the curator of exhibitions at the Museum of International Folk Art under Alexander Gerard. Of such connections the art history of New Mexico consists!

What of Ruthling's personal artistic roots, however? In the 1930's, the tiny northern New Mexico village of Tesuque seemed far from New Mexico's art centers of Taos and Santa Fe. It was not far enough, however, to keep the young Ruthling from being steeped in the spirit of creativity. The Mexican and New Mexican crafts which surrounded him developed in him a love of nature. Living things fascinated Ruthling. The variety of animal life and the forms of plants as they cycled through their growing season developed Ruthling's sense of style. The curious ways in which the beings of the natural world combined and recombined led Ruthling to create images with a kind of subtle humor. They also taught him to utilize many media in what he made. Ruthling's cross-media versatility led him to make use of tin, wood, clay, iron, and paper, in addition to oil and canvas for his paintings, for which he is most famous.

Today Ford Ruthling is a Santa Fe Living Treasure. He has never ceased providing a link for us with the past. However, as time goes on, Ruthling has become more than a link. He is an icon of what Santa Fe art means and a perfect example of what this generation hopes to pass on to the future.

Ford Ruthling grew up in Tesuque, New Mexico in the 1930s. The painters John Sloan, Will Shuster and William P. Henderson were family friends and frequent guests at the Ruthling home and apple orchard. His drawing professor at the University of New Mexico was Randall Davey. That history of artists and the spirit that founded the Santa Fe Art Colony is alive in Ruthling.

His "embossed paintings," a medium unique to him, reminds us of the pioneering artists he know as a young boy, and the ingenuity they imparted. ??New Mexico art history and Ford Ruthling's work are inexorably linked.

Working as an artist for over fifty years, Ruthling has never limited his choice of medium. Included in his oil paintings, ceramics, tinwork and embossed paintings, the influence of New Mexico art history is visible throughout. ??

In 1977 the United States Government commissioned Ruthling to design a set of postage stamps featuring historic New Mexican pottery. The commemorative stamps, which are similar to his oil paintings, made a piece of New Mexico art history accessible to an entire nation. ??

The tinwork that has defined a large part of Ruthling's career has its roots in the work for Higinio Gonzales, the seminal New Mexican tinmaker who worked between 1860 and 1922. The traditional subject matter of 19th century tinwork, which Ruthling collects, has found its way into his own work, being translated and infused with his own brand of humor and wisdom. ??

Ruthling's work can be seen as a tribute to the rich cultural and visual history of New Mexico. His works, informed by a fascinating life in a stunning place, are both windows to the past and reflections of the present.