I am grateful for social media otherwise I still would not know that Ruth had passed and could not offer my condolences to Arther and the extended family.  I was reading the  your first book ,HAWTHORN 
and I decided to try to reconnect with you all.
  I always felt privileged to have called  you  my friends. I want to send my sister a copy of HAWTHORN because she really loves poetry.You have remained in my heart Arthur because you inspired me with your ability to express yourself with words and Ruth with images.

Ruth graced my life for three years that were too short. Our friendship started in art when, along with other local artists,  we organized a summer exhibition on Digby Neck. Sharing the same corner of the world here in rural Nova Scotia and our love of art, we also shared familiar history – we had both studied at different times at Carnegie-Mellon University in Pittsburgh. Ruth had studied music and I had studied Engineering. Yet, as an artist, she constructed, and her avid interest in materials, tools and methods informed her paintings and textiles as well as her creative construction projects at home.  

When I first met her, Ruth was weaving, sculpting pure color in space, placing threads in time to create beautiful shawls and tapestries. She asked me to help edit the chap books about her travel to China with Arthur. The books include her art and poetry, and working together deepened our friendship.   On our plein air jaunts around Digby Neck, Ruth began painting again and her wry and witty observations about life were hilarious. Her energy was both calm and entirely present, even though she was often in pain from her hip. 

Her willingness to experiment and suspend judgement, to see and feel things differently in their reality and their potential, remain my creative touchstones.  Incredibly strong and sensitive,  Ruth was kind, modest, and bighearted - a wonderful friend as well as a gifted artist. 
Even just a few days before her death, we were discussing our next artistic projects. 
Ruth’s friendship was a wonderful gift – and her loss is only tempered by the gratitude I feel for the time we shared. 





Ruthie and I were inseparable childhood friends growing up on Washington Drive in Pittsburgh.  Most days we were together, two Tom boys, playing in the woods, riding bikes, having kool ade stands, attending Hiland Church activities, walking to and from school, taking the streetcar into Pittsburgh for the day, movies at the Gerard Theater in West View, weeks at church and YWCA camps and last but not least, two weeks every summer at Stone Harbor, New Jersey.  We reconnected a few years back through her brother, Steve and Facebook.  I treasure the memories from the 1950’s and early 60’s and sharing our lives over the past 50 years when we were not in communication I will hold in my heart.    To family and friends,  my sincere condolences.

Ruth was my cousin.  I was not in touch with her after she moved to Canada.  I often wondered what she was doing. 
I am very sorry for your loss.
From what I remember of her she was very nice when I visited Pittsburgh with my parents.


Ruth was such a warm and loving person ....she loved a good laugh..... and she always had a wonderful twinkle in her eyes.....which were also filled with curiosity for all around her.  She will be so missed. 

Ruth: creator of so much beauty, wry observer of the world and its inhabitants. And a good friend. 

OBITUARY

Ruth Mary Bull

27 November, 1947 – 23 April, 2019

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In respect for Ruth’s wishes, there will be no funeral service. There will be a memorial to celebrate her life and work, date to be announced.