Meet Ruby Nelson in Tempe

Today we’d like to introduce you to Ruby Nelson.

Ruby, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I was born in California and moved to Arizona after about one year of living. My mother is an accountant and my dad is an engineer, so when I was really young and producing a lot of creativity my parents didn’t know what to do. I started out drawing realistically and continued to throughout grade school and halfway throughout high school. My realistic drawings gained a lot of attention and showed in a couple of shows. I then started painting and that is where I found my true love. I never completely ditched drawing because it is a helpful tool for painting, but suddenly all I would do is paint. I suffered from severe depression at this time and painting seemed to be very therapeutic, but painting realistically wasn’t fulfilling me completely. Out of desperation, I toyed with the idea of destruction and decomposition within my paintings, as I felt my own mind decomposing and destroying itself. This is when I started pouring and brushing on large globs of paint on top of already finished realistic paintings. I essentially was “destroying” them. What I thought was therapeutic before, was nothing in comparison to this. I later researched abstract artists, especially Helen Frankenthaler a 1950’s female artist, and started to go into complete abstraction. I decided to make an art career by going to a university for a degree in painting. I felt abstraction was not as welcomed my first year, so I went back to painting realistically for almost two years. This took a huge hit on my mental health and eventually led me to want to drop out. It wasn’t until I had a professor my third year tell me to paint what I want to paint, that I felt I could go back to complete abstraction. He helped my work grow and helped refine my concept of destruction and decomposition. Now, as a graduate, I continue to paint abstractly in large scales and produce work I am proud of.

Has it been a smooth road?
Painting has definitely not been a smooth road. From the very beginning of my painting career, I have had to fight for support. Coming from a very A type family they were not originally very supportive in my decision to pursue painting as a career. Understandably, they were concerned with finding a job and being able to live comfortably. This is something every parent wants for their child. Eventually, when I went to University they realized it could be a lifetime career and have supported my art ever since. But that didn’t make the road any smoother, as when I went to college I faced even more backlash on my art. My art went from realism to complete abstraction. I always wanted to be a career abstract painter but felt my professors didn’t approve. I remember telling a professor what my future plans as an abstract artist were and he responded with, “Stick to what you’re good at.” Those words will forever be a driving force to stick to what I am good at and that is abstract art. For my first two and half years of college, my professors did not approve of my style of art and this ultimately made me want to drop out. I struggle with depression as it is and painting has always been my rock, so when the lack of support continued for years, I struggled even living. I struggled to continue to do what made me happy because the one place I thought I would have support is in art school. It wasn’t until the last semester of my junior year that I met Cam DeCaussin as my new painting professor that things began to look up. He encouraged me to not drop out and to continue to work on my abstract art and even worked with me in improving it. Without him, I probably would have dropped out of college and my art definitely would not be where it is today. I can safely say that I will never quit my art, no matter what challenges I face in the future. The road will never be smooth but I will continue riding on.

We’d love to hear more about your work.
All of my pieces are born as living breathing creatures that go through the same life process as I myself do; with time, age, work, and my life experiences, I too am slowly deteriorating mentally and physically within society. The abstract nature of staining, its color, and movement, artistically represent the concept and understanding that we are all physically and mentally deteriorating with time. As I document these feelings in paint, my pieces will physically represent the very same concept as they change over time. The more staining I do, the more paint I put onto it, and finally with the aspect of time, we both age with experience and time, slowly deteriorating. My art theme not only documents my life and societal experiences but physically lives and dies alongside myself. This deterioration physically in my work stems from a process done in the 1950s called, Staining. This is where they take thinned down oil paint and pour it onto raw canvas to create a field of color. I was inspired to do this process by my favorite artist, Helen Frankenthaler, who was a color-field painter. I took her painting process and created my own style by working in layers over long periods of time and then adding thick paint to create large textures that will later be stained on again. This process of layering stains and textures can take up to four months or even three days. My work is very subjective and it tells me when it’s done, not the other way around. This style of painting and the deterioration of it became what my art is known for and when one of the pieces is done and put out in the public, people recognize that it is my painting. That feeling knowing people love and recognize your work is something I will forever be proud of.

Do you feel luck has played a role in your life?
I believe luck, whether good or bad hasn’t really played a huge role in my art. Every decision I made was because of something I did or didn’t do. I worked hard every day to produce work I love, which sometimes failed, but I also never gave up. And selfishly or not, luck doesn’t come without hard work and patience from an individual.

Contact Info:

• Email: rubynelson222@gmail.com
• Instagram: @ruybsart222

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