Ruthie Basham received her BFA in Drawing and Painting from the University of Michigan in December 2001, graduating Magna Cum Laude. She was the recipient of the Bachelor of Fine Arts Award, which is awarded each semester to one graduating art student.
Currently residing in Ann Arbor, Michigan, her artwork has traveled to clientele across the country and internationally to Toronto, Vancouver, London, and Tokyo. Her work is on permanent display at the Detroit Regional Chamber of Commerce. She is a member of the Golden Key National Honor Society and the Delta Epsilon Iota National Honor Society for her academic and artistic achievements. She has contributed illustrations for "Project Sophie", a non-profit organization that distributes positive healing books to children's' hospitals around the globe.
Ruthie Basham has been a student of Kabbalah for the past seven years. She has received extensive training in classical ballet, a student of the School of American Ballet in New York City, of the Washington School of the Ballet in Washington, D.C., of the Joffrey Midwest Ballet in Detroit, of world-famous ballerina of the New York City Ballet, Suzanne Farrell, and has received two awards from the Royal Academy of Dancing in London, England. She has performed with the Washington Ballet and professionally with local modern dance troupes. Ruthie has studied many forms of West African dance, drumming, Yoruba philosophy, costume, performance, and music, Afro-Cuban dance, Yoga, Tai-chi, Chi-qong, Kung-fu, Chinese Medicine, Shiatsu Therapy, Hebrew, Hassidism, Jewish Mysticism, Zen and Tibetan Buddhism, Christ Consciousness, Native American and Celtic Shamanism, Anatomy, Figure Drawing, Ceramics and Sculpture in Kyoto Seika University of Japan, Printmaking, Graphic Design, Digital Photography, Art and Dance Therapy, Flower Essences, Aromatherapy, Reflexology, and Reiki. She is certified to teach classes in Drawing, Painting, Meditation, Stress Management, and Couples Work.
All of Ruthie's diverse background has come together to assist her in creating Personalized Healing Mandalas. A Mandala represents the universe in its whole, enlightened state. Although the roots of the Mandala lie in the East, every culture holds some form of the Mandala. Usually portrayed as a symmetrical image with a central point of focus, Mandalas are used for meditation, sacred ritual, and healing. It is often referred to as being the architecture of enlightenment, or a visual key to assist one in awakening one's consciousness to embody divine attributes. In creating each Mandala, Ruthie works with a medium of high quality, oil-based Prismacolor pencils on acid-free, high quality colored drawing paper.