Ruth Rippon

American, (1927–2022)
Ruth Rippon is a ceramic artist whose active presence in Northern California spans seven decades. Her story parallels the rise of vessel-based ceramics in the greater San Francisco Bay Area and clay’s evolution into sculpture. Born and raised in Sacramento, Rippon began her prolific ceramic life unceremoniously in high school, but it steadfastly developed when she was attending California College of Arts and Crafts (CCAC), Oakland (now known as California College of the Arts). She was a student there from 1947 to 1951, and her college years overlapped with those of Peter Voulkos, who graduated from CCAC with a MFA in 1952. She also knew Robert Arneson, who enrolled at CCAC a few years later and then attended Mills College, receiving his MFA in 1958. After working in some transitional positions in the Bay Area, including one as the summer assistant to artist-potter Antonio Prieto at Mills College, Oakland, in 1954 and 1956, she began teaching at California State University, Sacramento in 1956, and in the thirty-one years that followed became an influential teacher there.