Decorating as an art form

Ruth Cohen has studied art or taught it most of her life. When she's not in front of a class, you'll find her in her studio, trying out a new medium.

A veteran of 11 solo shows, including one in Harrisburg at the state Capitol, she is preparing for five exhibits in the winter.

"I am dizzy right now getting ready," says Cohen, who just celebrated her 50th wedding anniversary with her husband, Stanley, a patent attorney in Center City.

The pair clearly have no plans to sit around in retirement. The Elkins Park home they have owned for 15 years is their version of simplifying. After raising a family in Dresher, they traded a half-acre lot with 50 trees on a hillside for a planned community with first-floor living and managed landscaping.

But downsizing didn't mean compromising on space. In fact, the new house's soaring ceilings and ample wall space meant that Ruth Cohen, a graduate of the Corcoran Gallery and George Washington University, could sneak away to her basement studio and create something to adorn them. The result is a feast for the eyes, a reflection of the couple's travels and her love of art.

When the Cohens first moved in, they renovated the generous master bath using Spanish rose marble for the walls and floors around the giant soaking tub. She framed batik prints and displayed her collection of animal bones a la Georgia O'Keeffe.

Next, Ruth added color to the then-blank walls of the living spaces. "I am very much into combining colors on the walls," she says.

There is lavender for the bedroom, peach for the living room, gold for the ceiling above the stairs. "The peach is really becoming, and it is easy to live with. In the winter, I feel like the sun is shining in here."

Two years ago, the Cohens renovated their all-white kitchen, expanding it and adding color, naturally. A.A. Perry of Bryn Athyn installed the kitchen, which features such touches as an iridescent Venetian-glass backsplash.

Displayed in glass cabinets are found objects: wood blocks from India used to make prints on fabrics. Ruth Cohen discovered them buried in a barrel at an antiques shop in New Jersey. She painted the raised portion in metallic paint to highlight the blocks' beauty.

In the dining room, Cohen incorporated more sparkle by adding mirrors to the tray ceiling. On one wall, she created a 4-by-9-foot enamel, oil, and acrylic canvas in purple, orange, and metallics that features six family members, including two grandchildren.

On an opposite wall hang several elaborately dressed marionettes: one from Thailand she carried "like a baby" on the plane ride home, another from France dressed in purple silk and velvet.

Above the living room's fireplace, Cohen created her own nod to Marcel Duchamp's Nude Descending a Staircase, the work his critics called "Explosion in a Shingle Factory." She named hers after that. The massive wood, paper, paint, and glass piece she worked on in her garage.

All the objects not hand-done by Ruth were curated by the couple through their travels. In 1968, the Cohens started going to Europe every year. They have been on safari in Kenya and Tanzania, snorkeled with sharks in the Galapagos and Bora Bora, mingled with orangutans in Borneo, and just this year rode elephants in a caravan in Thailand.

"Almost all of the pieces that we purchased during our travels and are in our house were selected by Ruth," says Stanley Cohen. "She buys, I schlep them home."

Above the front door are wood-carved dolls from their trips to Asia, and Fu dogs, stick puppets from Bali, and a Mexican copper-and-brass cockatoo. Behind the objects Ruth has stationed a giant stained-glass samurai soldier in brilliant blue and white.

On the glass around the front door, she has etched Matisse-inspired motifs. The same etchings are on a bathroom mirror. She upholstered walls in a white gossamer fabric whose patterns give a nod to Miro and Matisse.

Ruth Cohen has even been known to create while on vacation. When her two children were young (Stanley has two of his own), she dragged a huge, abstract-patterned hooked rug in the back of their station wagon to work on during long car rides.

On a trip to Las Vegas, she skipped the pool to paint in their hotel room. "It was way too hot to be outside, so luckily I brought my paints with me, and we had a big desk in our hotel and I painted." The result: a work with African dancers and giraffes.

During a cruise, she took a watercolor class and captured the magic of Carnival in Rio.

"When we entertain, all of our guests are highly complimentary of Ruth's artwork and how she incorporated it into the house," says Stanley Cohen, who happily hangs the pieces on a regular basis.

"When I was young, I had no appreciation for art," he says. "Being married to Ruth for 50 years has developed my knowledge of art, and I certainly enjoy being surrounded by the art that she has filled our home with."

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