Whether modeling baker’s clay with her children or looping copper, brass, iron, or steel wire into airy sculptures, Ruth Asawa believed materials didn’t need to be expensive to be meaningful. A self-described “scrounger,” she gathered cast-off items not only to fuel her own creativity but to make art accessible to others. This spirit of resourcefulness, shaped during her time at Black Mountain College, an experimental arts school in Asheville, North Carolina, speaks to Asawa’s belief that art is not about what you have, but how you see. This was a lesson that came from teacher and mentor Josef Albers, who would task students with straightforward tasks like going into the woods, gathering leaves, and turning them into a composition. Asawa explains how Albers was trying to "train our eyes to see materials, textures in a new way." Explore more of Asawa’s materials and methods in "Ruth Asawa: Retrospective." Link in bio. [Archival photographs of Ruth Asawa courtesy Ruth Asawa Lanier, I...