Bullseye with Jesse Thorn is a production of MaximumFun.org and is distributed by NPR.

It's Bullseye, I'm Jesse Thorn.

Maybe you've seen them in a museum or in a book or on Google's front page.

They've dangling wire sculptures, floating above the ground in elegant symmetrical shapes.

Some look like hourglass as others like lampshades or flowers.

They're otherworldly but also beautiful.

They seem almost alive.

Those sculptures are among the best known works by Ruth Asal, one of my favorite artists.

Ruth was born in Norwalk, California in 1926.

Her parents had immigrated from Japan and the family worked on a farm until US soldiers

moved them to internment camps during World War II.

After graduating from high school in a camp, Ruth became an artist and eventually landed

in San Francisco.

Besides the beautiful wire sculptures, Ruth also made some of the most beloved and iconic

public art in all of the San Francisco Bay area.

Sculptures like the mermaid fountain in Gerardelli Square or the Japanese-American internment memorial

in San Jose.

She also dedicated a huge chunk of her life to public arts education.

She helped found the San Francisco School of the Arts, which spoiler alert is where I

went to high school.

It's now called the Ruth Asal, School of the Arts.

Ruth used to just hang out there and garden.

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