Ruth Asawa: (1926-2013) Sculptor, Maker of the Mermaid Fountain, Mother(6 Kids!) Learned Drawing during the WWII Japanese Internment.

How did a book on Women Sculptors end up in my dentist's office? What a gift to read about Ruth Asawa. Her work had an immediate and powerful appeal to me. After the Japanese Internment during WWII, Ruth said, "I no longer see myself as a Japanese or an American but as a citizen of the universe...I no longer want to nurse such wounds; I now want to wrap my fingers cut by aluminum shavings, and hands scratched by wire. Only these two things produce tolerable pains." She has spoken about "glimpses of her childhood" and that a memory of sunlight pouring through a dragonfly's translucent wing was a part of the inspiration for the crocheted wire sculptures.

Regarding her controversial mermaid breastfeeding fountain she said, “For the old, it would bring back the fantasy of their childhood..and for the young, it would give them something to remember when they grow old.”