International artist and curator Donna Ruff will give a special presentation and artist talk on Thursday, February 12, 2015, at The REP Theatre in Seaside as part of the Escape To Create artist residency program.

A resident of Santa Fe, New Mexico, Ruff’s fascination with paper can be found in her family history. Her great-grandfather was a bookbinder in Russia and her grandparents were early recyclers of books and paper in Chicago.

As a child, Ruff often played with shredded papers from her family’s business. As an artist, Ruff remains drawn to discarded books and recycled handmade papers for sculpting extraordinarily beautiful art pieces represented by galleries in London, New York, Miami and Berlin.

Whether transforming the front pages of the New York Times into a lace-like lattice or reinterpreting Freud through a copy of Interpretation of Dreams, Ruff finds beauty and meaning in the old and discarded, capturing the past in an enduring present.

Meticulously torn or cut by hand, folded, shredded and burned, Ruff’s unconventional techniques create intricate visual patterns. She gets inspiration from 17^th century liturgical art, Moorish architecture and Islamic calligraphy and is influenced by contemporary artists such as Kiki Smith.

Escape to Create has been hosted in Seaside since 1983.

For more info or to buy tickets for Thursday’s event, visit The REP’s website.