Ruth Waters has been hand-carving hardwood logs into sculpture since 1957. A Stanford graduate she had her first solo exhibition at Gallery House (Ladera, 1962) followed by a show at the Benny Barrios Gallery in Sacramento. As her family moved around the country, Waters exhibited and taught sculpture (hand-carving in hardwoods) in the Torpedo Factory (Alexandria, Virginia), and returned to the Bay Area in 1976.

She founded the Twin Pines Art Center (Belmont) in 1977, followed by the 1870 Art Center (Belmont), the Peninsula Museum of Art (Belmont, then Burlingame), and is a co-founder of the Peninsula Art Foundation (San Bruno). Her studio is currently in the Tanforan shopping mall, San Bruno.

Waters has had 27 solo exhibitions in addition to regional and national juried exhibitions (50), public and corporate collections (7), and guest lectures (7). She is represented by Siy Gallery in San Francisco.