Ruggles Displays Flying Pig Sculpture at Flying Pig

In the early ‘90s, Betty Ruggles of Evansville, WI, started working with paper mache. “It was the one medium that didn’t require special materials, just newspaper and paste,” she said. “And the thing with paper is that you can go really large.”

Pieces of newspaper are carefully formed into a complex web of skin, hooves, snout, and ears to make up a life-sized pig flying a hang glider spanning 11 feet. An airbrush artist friend gave him his first coat of colors, but Ruggles dreams of creating a final coat someday using her favorite medium, fabric.

A Flying Pig Gallery fan spotted the pig resting on a chair in Ruggles’s home and gave her a Flying Pig brochure.

Ruggles contacted the Flying Pig and said, “I am not sure what I am looking to do. It is a fun piece and I would like very much to share it. He puts smiles on faces and that is always a good thing!”

A week later the nameless pig was hanging in the gallery. The public is welcome to email name suggestions.

The Flying Pig Gallery and Greenspace is open 9 am to 6 pm daily and is located at N6975 State Highway 42, Algoma. For more information call 920.487.9902 or email [email protected].