Ruth Driedger

Ruth A. Driedger grew up on a farm just outside of Wheatley, Ontario, in a family and community where hard work, determination, honesty and integrity were highly valued assets.   She adopted those values fully, and continues to aspire toward them.   It was there that Ruth gained a deep and abiding appreciation for the land, and since then she has always felt more “connected” when near areas in which farming is paramount.

Music was Ruth’s first love.  Growing up, she played piano and sang in choirs.  While studying music in Winnipeg, she directed her first children’s choir.  Since that time, she spent 28 years conducting one choir after another, from children to adults.  Music was a way of expressing the visual images that impact human beings every day.  It was a way of “painting” the sounds of life on imaginary canvasses, for all to share and appreciate.   It was not so much that she wanted to express the colour of sound, but rather to re-create the “sound of colour”:  that which makes us all “alive”.

Most of Ruth’s adult life was spent in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, where her most cherished “accomplishment” was raising three beautiful children.  Their inspiration, unconditional love and hope, continues to be a reminder of the importance of youth and innocence and wide-eyed wonder.

Not surprisingly – at least to anyone who has lived there – being in the prairies gave Ruth an appreciation of the amazing nature of “sky”!  It’s alive out there.  Each day, it adds its own unmistakable personality to the world beneath it.   Driving out of the city, to experience the openness of the waving fields of grain and immense sky, and she was reminded of “back home” – standing on the shores of Lake Erie or listening to the rustling corn fields whispering whatever secrets they held.  The challenge of properly capturing and conveying these moments was ever present.

Life’s “cycle” has brought Ruth back to her birthplace.  Surrounded, once again, by the many fond memories of childhood and the warmth and support of family and friends, she began painting in 2006.   When her work in Chatham as a court reporter allows the time, Ruth experiences the freedom and “magic” of transforming the beauty of life into paintings.
Recently Ruth has accepted a position as choral music director at United Mennonite Educational Institute in Leamington, Ontario.  Beginning in September her teaching will include highschool music, law and art.  She will continue to paint as she ventures into her new profession as a teacher, always keeping an eye open for loveliness in the ordinary.