Artwork
Biography
Ruth Kassinger grew up in Baltimore, Maryland in a family of furniture craftsmen. She received a B.A. degree from Yale University and a M.A. degree from Johns Hopkins University. Her first career has been as a writer and is the author of three critically acclaimed science books for adults and eight award-winning books for children.
Several years ago, Kassinger turned her creativity toward sculpture. The idea for a full-scale, transparent piano sculpture filled with colored silk and nylon threads was born of her love of music and her knowledge of the nature of color and transparency. Having grown up in a family of craftsmen (her parents had a custom furniture business and she later designed several pieces for her own home), she had the skills to undertake her first sculptural piece: a ‘glass’ piano.
To create the piano, she works with a talented team of acrylic glass artisans who craft the piano’s body and its keyboard. Using laser technology, thousands of holes are drilled both by computer and by hand to ensure that all of the threads are perfectly parallel. She is currently working on a series of transparent stringed instruments.
