Domenica Ruta grew up in a working-class, unforgiving Italian town north of Boston where in the 17th century women were hanged as witches. Her mother, Kathi, a notorious figure in the hardscrabble place, was a drug addict and sometime dealer whose life swung between welfare and riches, whose highbrow taste was at odds with her base appetites. And yet she managed, despite the chaos she created, to instill in her daughter the idea that art could transcend this life.