Joanne Beaule Ruggles earned her BFA and MFAs from Ohio State University. She taught studio art programs at Ohio State, Alan Hancock College, Cuesta College, but most of her university career was spent as a professor in the Art Dept at Cal Poly State Univ., SLO where she received the university’s top research award in 2004 for her painting series A Stone of Hope. Her originality and content also earned her grants from the Puffin Foundation, James Irvine Foundation and SLO Community Foundation. Portraying the human figure is this artist’s specialty. She is known for her use of unorthodox tools, materials and techniques. Ruggles says “Intuitive, non-objective exploration with color, shape, and pattern starts my creative process – the more daring, the better. I call it “tightrope walking” – no need for a net, no preparation for failure, intensely in the moment. Eventually I WILL fall wildly into my figurative subject and that plunge is exhilarating.”