About Ruth Gee

Ruth Gee was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota to Scandinavian parents. Her family moved to Bolivia, South America as missionaries when she was six months old.

She grew up in the Andean Mountains at 14,000 feet among the Inca Indians, being home schooled in English while speaking Spanish, English, & Aymara, with Danish and Norwegian words all mixed in.  Ruth, her parents, an older sister and four younger brothers moved back to Minnesota when she was a junior in High School.  There she had her first course in art, though she confesses to having illustrated her crib and any blank surface she could find while growing up.  These usually included every stucco wall in the house, book margins, the dust paths, her body, her playmates, and more appropriate spots like a 4×8 foot black board her parents painted for her bedroom when she was 5.  She remembers fondly staying up most of the night drawing by lamplight.  All this practice seems to have left Ruth with a strong sense of form and line.

Her style is very realistic and she is locally known as the “renaissance artist.”  Her favorite subjects are people.

Oil painting has been her main vehicle for artistic expression.  She does commissioned portrait work and allegorical paintings.  In the last couple of years she has taken up sculpture as a means of helping her sister, Judy, a nurse and midwife, build a woman’s hospital back in Bolivia. near where they grew up among the Inca Indians.

Ruth’s first life size bronze sculpture Reflective Moments was of a young woman on a rock with her toe extended as if to dip it in the water.  She has continued sculpting another 6 life size bronze sculptures.  Her grandson, Andrew Gee, has been apprenticing and co-signing the last 5 commissions.

Ruth and her husband, who is a retired attorney, live in Michigan and winter in Florida. They have three sons and 12 artistic grandchildren.  She works out of her art studio in her home and paints or sculpts 6 to 8 hours daily.  An average painting takes three months and a bronze sculpture takes a year or more in sculpture time.

Ruth’s personal commitment in art is based on the Bible verse:

“Finally, Brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think on these things.”  Philippians 4:8

Ruth looks at art as a tool of expression, just as a writer uses words, an artist uses forms and color.  The key lies in the value of the idea and the ability to get that idea across.

Learn more about Ruth.