Rutledge says the professor became a mentor and, after Rutledge’s senior year, invited him back for graduate school, but at the time he had a keen interest in law enforcement and wanted to pursue a career with the DEA. He told me about his military experience, and we just sort of hit it off.” It turned out the professor was a Vietnam veteran. “They weren’t going to let me take that class either, but I decided just to just show up when the class started and introduce myself. “I figured if I could work on a macro-scale with sheet metal, I could work on a micro-scale with it,” he says.
He crashed it, hoping his background in the military working with sheet metal might buy him a waiver from the professor. Rutledge says the fact that he wasn’t an art major prohibited him from taking the class, so he scoured the course catalogue and found an art class working with metal. “My junior year of college I wanted an elective class, something outside of the political science world, a little more fun, and I found a woodworking class that was taught through the Art Department.” “I grew up always drawing and just making things out of wood and building things,” he says. When he got out, he was unsure of what he wanted to study but ended up at Illinois State University studying international relations and German. Rutledge attended Evanston Township High School and, upon graduating, went into the Air Force for four years. “I’m grateful to the staff at NorthShore for keeping my wife and child safe during childbirth.” “My wife is a nurse at NorthShore and was rushed to NorthShore Evanston during her second pregnancy with serious complications,” Rutledge says. The show will benefit NorthShore University HealthSystem’s Save Moms, a program designed to protect and preserve maternal health before, during, and after delivery. The highly competitive, juried show and sale features crafts created by some of the country’s finest artists.
Rutledge will be one of many artists whose work will be on display at the annual American Craft Exposition at the Chicago Botanic Garden from September 30 through October 2. It took a while, but he eventually found his calling. Rutledge, an Evanston resident, is a military veteran, an almost federal law enforcement officer, former fireman, and current successful jewelry artist. The Beatles song, “The Long and Winding Road,” might be a poignant reminder to Jonathan Rutledge about the importance of perseverance.
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