Founding Rootworks
Rootworks began as an 7 acre plot of land and an old pickup truck, and grew into a large and vibrant community space where artists and writers came together to live, learn, and work under the mentorship of its founders Ruth and Jean Mountaingrove, and their close friend and collaborator, Tee Corinne. When the Mountaingroves first moved to Rootworks there were two small cabins, and not much else. They quickly began construction on a workspace– with room enough to publish magazines and develop photographs– a long low barn which they named Natalie Barney, after the turn-of-the nineteenth century lesbian writer of the same name, Natalie Clifford Barney (1876-1972). The first year at Rootworks was a flurry of activity, made possible by the contributions of the OWL community. Unlike the other communes in the area, only Ruth and Jean lived at Rootworks full time– instead, Rootworks functioned as a communal studio space where women came to write, work on magazines, develop their photographs, and get feedback from one another. Women quickly descended on Rootworks, attracted by Ruth and Jean’s vision, and the promise of being afforded space to create.
Life at Rootworks
Building Rootworks
All the construction at Rootworks was done by the hands of women. No outside help was hired at any point of the process. Most of these women had little to no knowledge of construction– however, what they did possess was a remarkable belief in the work that they were doing, and an eagerness to learn the skills which would enable them to continue being 100% self-sustaining. The facilities at Rootworks were off-grid, there was only one cabin with running water, and those that had electricity ran on a small array of solar panels installed on Natalie Barney.
Publishing Magazines
Rootworks became the offices of two major feminist publications, Ruth and Jean’s WomanSpirit, and Ruth and Tee’s photography annual The Blatant Image. There were large tables inside Natalie Barney dedicated to composing layouts and cutting images, and mail was sent and received via a PO box in the nearby town of Wolf Creek. The newfound space was a blessing for the Mountaingroves who had been, up to this point, publishing their magazine out of the upstairs attic space of a Quaker preschool in Eugene.
Photography Ovulars
The highlight of every year at Rootworks was the summer photography ovular. These two week programs were the brainchild of Ruth and Tee, and were, in essence, photography summer camps for adults. Women came from around the country to spend time at Rootworks learning how to take photographs and develop film, but also to be in community with one another, an opportunity many did not have in their lives at home. The special highlight of each Ovular were the critique sessions, which were less about critiquing work and more about building up your fellow artist with words of affirmation.
WomanSpirit Magazine
Ruth and Jean began publishing WomanSpirit in 1974, four years before they arrived at Rootworks. The quarterly magazine featured essays on spirituality and environment (the two were often linked), poetry, original songs complete with compositions, drawings, works of fiction, and more. Initially, it was a relatively small publication, populated mainly with the work of friends and neighbors. However, as the publication grew in popularity, so too did the space necessary to compile and print the magazine. The move to Rootworks enabled the Mountaingroves to expand the production of the magazine– including other women in the design, layout, and printing processes for the first time. As a result, the popularity of the magazine only grew– women leaving Rootworks would carry with them copies of WomanSpirit to distribute to friends and loved ones, which had been compiled by their own two hands.
Photography Ovulars & The Blatant Image
It was the summer photography Ovulars which truly put Rootworks on the map. After Ruth shared with Tee her frustrations about not having had much time to take photographs because of the work on WomanSpirit, Corinne proposed that they (she and Ruth) should begin hosting photography seminars. But not seminars, because of the patriarchal origin of the word, no, these would be Ovulars, workshops by women, for women. They began advertising for the first ovular in the spring of 1979– some six months after Ruth and Jean bought the site– and by July, they were in business. These two week sessions somewhat resembled summer camps; women would come to Rootworks and camp out in the meadows, participate in communal preparation of meals, go on outings to nature preserves, and, above all else, take photographs. The environment was casual, no previous knowledge or experience was required, but the work done there was not frivolous. Under the guidance of Ruth, Tee, and a rotating cadre of renowned guest instructors (Barbara Hammer and J.E.B to name a few), the women who attended Rootworks were taken seriously as artists, some of them most likely for the very first time. For many, the most valuable part of the Ovulars was the attention and care shown towards their work, as well as Tee and Ruth’s unwavering belief in their potential. The final aspect of the photography Ovulars was the publication of The Blatant Image, an annual photography magazine compiled by Tee and Ruth, featuring the work of the students in that year’s Ovular. Though The Blatant Image was only published three times, it had an incredible impact on the field of feminist photography. As the title suggests, the magazine featured many uncensored images of the female body, and was the first art magazine to feature such images of women, taken by women, entirely for women’s consumption.
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All images on this page © Ruth Mountaingrove / Oregon Digital Heritage, Lesbian Intentional Community: Ruth Mountaingrove Collection. Special Collections and University Archives, University of Oregon Archives