Ruth Knapp

Ruth’s artworks are inspired from Torah and Chassidut: conceptualizing the Hebrew holy letters as ‘tiny little dancers dressed in sleek black outfits expressing themselves on ancient parchments’.
From Northern California to Northern Israel… Ruth’s father, Jean Teten, created wild and stunning materials for the fashion and entertainment industries for clients such as Yves St. Laurent, Paco Rabanne, Disney,
Cirque de Soleil, Universal Studios etc. His tactile and imaginative approach instilled in Ruth a natural instinctive sense of creativity.
Ruth’s mother, Carol Teten, an accomplished dance historian and choreographer, always had her home transformed as a dance studio. Ruth would come home from school to a home filled with dancers rehearsing historical theatrical period dances. Carol made a monumental contribution to the field of historical dance, thus inspiring Ruth to view life through the eyes of movement.
Ruth’s affinity and love for the Land of Israel developed mainly from her frequent childhood travels to the Holy land.
She studied art throughout her life in California, Boston, the renowned Paris museums, and traditional ceramics art-forms in Africa. There, she learned Raku firing, glazing and carving techniques from the natives in a small village, Rhumsiki, Cameroon on the West Coast of Africa.
In this remote village, she never imagined having a chance meeting that would forever change her life’s perspective.
Out one day on a walk in the fields of Cameroon, she encountered an elderly man who, upon discussion and finding out of Ruth’s origins as a Jew, stood up and very emotionally exclaimed, “It is a very great honor to meet one of the ‘Chosen People’!
This African man had never met a Jew before and this was a very moving experience for him.
This left Ruth with opposite feelings of pride and of embarrassment, since she grew up with a sense of Jewish belonging but was nonetheless very ignorant of the very traditions and teachings she was now being praised for.
This encounter got her thinking and she decided to move to Israel to learn more about her heritage which brought her to the city of Jerusalem.
Inspired by the fascinating secrets of the Kabbalah and the Chassidut, the ‘Holy Hebrew Letters’ have become an intrinsic part of her artistic expression.
Her wishes are to help spread the secrets of the teachings of the Holy Ba’al Shem Tov, which are said to be the key to ushering in the ultimate final redemption for all of
humanity.
Ruth is one of the influential members of the prestigious Safed Artists’ Colony.

You can find Ruth and more of her artwork at https://ruthknapp.com/