Palmer woman is State Fair poster girl

WASILLA — More than once in her life, Ruth Hulbert has doubted her ability to be an artist.

Now working in an art gallery in Bellingham, Washington, Hulbert graduated from Palmer High School in 2004, and from Western Washington University in 2008 with a bachelor’s degree in biology and painting. She recently completed a certificate in natural science illustration through the University of Washington in Seattle.

Hulbert has also designed three posters for the Alaska State Fair, including this year’s, which is focused on the theme “Dig In.”

“There’s much more to the Fair than can ever go into a single painting, but I hope this year’s poster helps people think about what’s ‘underground,’ and how who we are and what we do today grows out of what came before,” Hulbert wrote in her artist statement.

Though sure in her philosophy on art, Hulbert became unsure of her future in the field when she began experiencing debilitating eye-strain headaches whenever she put pencil to paper. She was born cross-eyed, and after several failed childhood surgeries to realign her eyes, she gave up on “stereo vision,” and learned to use one eye at a time. It became as easy as shifting her weight from one foot to the other.

But the adaptation was not a foolproof solution.

“Monocular vision works great for drawing and painting, not so well for parallel parking or tennis,” Hulbert wrote in an email. (She was working and preparing for travel to Alaska on Wednesday.)

But eventually the pain became too great. At first she worried she was not meant to be an artist, but after a year of self-deprecation, she admitted to herself that she was experiencing “an actual physical problem,” not “some moral failure as an artist.

Though many people lament being away from home when ill, Hulbert was soon relieved to be in Washington, where Medicaid covered vision therapy to gradually correct and re-train her misaligned eyes.

“As an artist with bad eyes I never would have been able to pay to fix it. I’m grateful that Washington has good free healthcare for low-income artists,” Hulbert wrote.

This spring, when Hulbert began working on the state fair poster, she was still trying to get the hang of using both eyes together. She was “seeing everything twice in almost but not quite the same place,” she said, so she designed the poster in such a way that she “could work in small patches of detail” without having “to be constantly aware of the whole image.”

“It’s not usually the best way to paint, but at that point it was the only way I could paint without seeing too much,” Hulbert wrote.

Homer artist Brad Hughes said it’s not the way one paints, but the desire to do so that makes a successful artist.

“She’s a great student and she has the most important thing that an artist can have, which is a tremendous desire to do art and get better at it,” he said.

Hughes first met Hulbert when she was about 10-years-old, the daughter of his friend Ralph. Upon entering their home, Hulbert insisted Hughes come view her art. In her room he saw not only her work, but also his own state fair posters plastered on the ceiling above them. She didn’t have all 12 of them (Hughes designed the posters from 1988 to 2001), but she had enough to convince Hughes that he had a pretty big fan with the motivation to design her own creations.

When Hughes was getting out of the poster- and sign-making business at the fair, Hulbert was just starting as a sign maker there herself (though she has since been replaced by a special printer). Hughes cited the young woman’s lifelong love for the fair and her dream of being the fair’s poster artist for years as reasons for marketing director Dean Phipps to hire her.

“You’d be lucky to have her,” Hughes said he told Phipps at the time.

It took a few years before fair staff put their faith in Hulbert, but by the time they did, Hughes was more sounding board than instructor to the young artist, offering advice to flesh out her ideas when asked. In 2007, she produced her first poster, on the theme “Fun Amongst the Giants” (referring to the cabbage and pumpkin weigh-offs).

Hughes called her work “fascinating” and “completely original,” and was happy to hear of her progress in recovering from her vision therapy.

“She really is a remarkable artist,” he said. “It would be really tragic if she couldn't pursue her art dreams.”

Saturday, Hulbert will be back in Alaska to enjoy the fair and greet people at Fireside Books — her former employer —at 10:30 a.m., just before the start of the

Alaska State Fair Parade in downtown Palmer at 11 a.m.

Contact reporter Caitlin Skvorc at 352-2266 or caitlin.skvorc@frontiersman.com.