Fluno, Ruth, 1923-1974

Ruth Lilja Fluno was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota on December 16, 1923. She married Robert Y. Fluno on January 18, 1944. The couple moved to Walla Walla, Washington in 1952 when Robert Fluno was appointed Assistant Professor of Political Science at Whitman College. While she and her husband often lived abroad for extended periods, Walla Walla remained their home base. The couple resided in London in 1950, East Pakistan (Bangladesh) in 1957, and Florence, Italy. Ruth Fluno also took several extended sketching trips in southern Europe.

Ruth Fluno was primarily a self-taught artist and writer, although she did attend classes at the Minneapolis Institute of Art, the Walker School of Art (Washington, D.C.), the Walker Art Center (Minneapolis, Minnesota), Heatherley’s College of Art (London, England), and the Washington State University Summer Art Program (Spokane, Washington).

Fluno held a wide variety of employment, ranging from commercial artist to political organizer. While residing in Walla Walla, she worked for Whitman College as a proof-reader and an art instructor. She also taught painting at the Picturehouse Gallery, the Washington State Penitentiary, and the Carnegie Art Center, all in Walla Walla, Washington.

Fluno is best known for her humorous and critical portraits of middle class Americans; she considered much of her artwork to be social commentary. She also created numerous sketches and paintings of buildings in Walla Walla, Washington and southern Europe. She considered her work to be “expressionistic.” Yet, unlike other contemporary artists, she worked in the very traditional media of oil and watercolor on canvas. During her lifetime, she exhibited her work at over 70 exhibitions.

As a writer, Fluno published five volumes of poetry and numerous individual poems in Yankee Magazine and other publications. Upon her death, she left behind several unpublished book and short story manuscripts and nearly twenty booklets of unpublished poetry.

Ruth Fluno committed suicide by self-suffocation with a plastic bag on November 24, 1974.

From the guide to the Ruth Fluno Collection, 1927-1980, (Whitman College and Northwest Archives)