"This group of works is my fantasy of an organism that digests Styrofoam and plastic, two of the non-recyclable, non-degradable materials that are clogging our oceans and landfills."

Ruth Tabancay's passion for science led her to study microbiology in college, and after a stint as a hospital laboratory technologist, she went on to medical school. After 11 years in private practice, she left medicine to study art. She is graduate of the University of California, Berkeley; University of California School of Medicine, San Francisco; and California College of the Arts. Her work has been exhibited in Northern California at the San Francisco Museum of Craft and Design, Southern Exposure Gallery, Bedford Gallery, the San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles and in venues nationwide. Tabancay is Vice-President of Pacific Rim Sculptors, and the Northern California representative for the Surface Design Association.