Rootworks
About
On July 11th, 1978, Ruth Mountaingrove (1923-2016) and her partner Jean (1925-2019) purchased 7 acres of land in Josephine County, Oregon, for $7,800. It was a new beginning for the two women, who, since 1971, had been living and moving between several different small “Womyn’s Lands,” a series of back-to-the-land communes distributed along I-5 in the lush river valleys of Southern Oregon. Ruth and Jean were early participants in the Oregon Womyn’s Land Movement (OWLM)– later the Oregon Women’s Land Trust– a loosely organized group of lesbians and feminists who established their own homesteads and intentional communities. The OWLM sought to create spaces where women could thrive, unburdened by societal expectation or prejudice, find community, share freely, and live joyfully. After years of living at different communes, Ruth and Jean had decided build an intentional community of their own, with enough space for publishing their magazine, WomanSpirit, and for the construction of a darkroom for Ruth’s photography. They named their land ‘Rootworks,’ and, over the next decade, with the partnership of their close friend, and Ruth’s fellow photographer, Tee Corinne (1943-2006), grew the site into a bustling hub for the creation and publication of lesbian art nationwide.
Though the site is no longer in active use, (it is held in trust by the Rootworks LLC) Rootworks has a foundational role in the histories of feminist and lesbian art. The legacy of Rootworks is the legacy of feminist photography itself, and the work done by Ruth and Tee at Rootworks paved the way for the commercial, mainstream success of artists like Barbara Hammer (1939-2019), J.E.B (b. 1944), and Catherine Opie (b. 1961). Together, beginning just after the establishment of Rootworks in 1978, Ruth and Tee documented the lives of lesbians living communally at OWLM sites, publishing the images widely in popular feminist magazines of the time; Country Living, WomenSource Rising, Plexus, New Women’s Times, and Maize. The photographs quickly generated attention. Images of women dancing, building, creating, farming, and loving one another– these were pictures of a type of life that many queer women didn’t previously realize was possible. These images, alongside Ruth and Jean’s magazine, WomenSpirit, attracted women across the country, who wanted to become involved in living and creating at Rootworks. While women in the OWLM community had been helping with the publication of WomenSpirit from the beginning, it was only one year after Rootworks was founded, in 1979, that Tee and Ruth began hosting photography workshops there. For the next decade, Rootworks served as an incubator for lesbian artists, a safe space to practice their discipline while living in community with peers, under the tutelage of a host of respected artists– a place where life and art were inextricable.
Despite the impact Rootworks had within the OWL community, and the contributions its members made to the canon of feminist photography, the site has been all but forgotten. It survives only through the LLC established by Jean Mountaingrove before her death to protect the site. Neither Tee Corinne, nor either of the Mountaingroves ever gained much notoriety outside of Southern Oregon. Their photographs and writings remain largely unexamined by historians and art historians alike.
Tee Corinne
Rootworks
Ruth Mountaingrove
Rootworks Timeline
1971. Ruth meets Jean, they move to Josephine County in Southern Oregon to join the Women’s Land Movement
1974. Ruth and Jean publish the first issue of WomanSpirit
1975. Corinne comes out as a lesbian, she begins dating Honey Lee Cottrell
1978. After moving to Josephine County, Corinne meets Mountaingrove, and they establish Rootworks
1979. Rootworks hosts its first Feminist Photography Ovular1981. Tee begins publishing The Blatant Image, a magazine dedicated to lesbian photography. Rootworks holds its last Ovular
1984. The final issue of WomanSpirit is published
1985. Ruth and Jean separate
1986. Ruth moves to California1988. Ruth begins recording her video autobiographies, which center on coming into her identity as a lesbian, her participation in various feminist movements, Rootworks, and photography
1989. Corinne enters into a relationship with Beverly Ann Brown, they will remain together for the rest of their lives1997. Ruth completes her video autobiographies
2003. Beverly is diagnosed with cancer
2005. Beverly passes away, Tee is diagnosed with cancer
2006. Tee chooses to end her life via the Oregon Death with Dignity Act due to her advanced liver cancer, she passes away at age 62
2016. Ruth passes away at age 93
Image of Tee © Tee A. Corinne / Tee A. Corinne Papers, Coll. 263. Special Collections and University Archives, University of Oregon Archives
Image of Rootworks and Ruth © Ruth Mountaingrove / Oregon Digital Heritage, Lesbian Intentional Community: Ruth Mountaingrove Collection. Special Collections and University Archives, University of Oregon Archives
Drawing of Rootworks © Jean Mountaingrove / “View of Rootworks.” Maize, no. 39 (Winter 1994): 11. Archives of Sexuality and Gender
Keelin Pogue
Originally from Walla Walla, Washington, Keelin Pogue was (at the time of publishing) a second year master’s student at the Bard Graduate Center, pursuing an M.A in Decorative Arts, Design History, and Material Culture. Her academic studies are focused on museum practice and history, as well as folk art.