ARTIST STATEMENT
My consistent use of found materials from the common everyday world of the man-made and the natural permeates and defines all my work. My mixed media collages reflect my interest in the physicality of objects, their “thing-ness”: textures, shapes, colors. In the tradition of Picasso’s collages and Duchamp’s found objects, the stuff of my art is likely to be “ropa usada” or other man-made discards or the discards of nature.
I enjoy the uncommon and unexpected beauty found in materials that are used for packaging–and usually thrown away after a single use. These materials may be in their pristine manufactured state or aged by the elements of nature or transformed by my hand.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Ruth A. Keitz has been involved in art since elementary school. She participated in Saturday art classes at the Carnegie Institute in Pittsburgh, PA from fourth grade through high school.
She received a BA in art from Allegheny College in Meadville, PA. At the University of Texas at Austin she completed her MFA in art education with a minor in studio art and a PhD in curriculum and instruction with a minor in studio art. She served as a Teaching Assistant in both art and curriculum and instruction and an Assistant Instructor in art.
She taught art in the San Antonio ISD and then went to the Anchorage School District as an art administrator and later an administrator in curriculum and instruction. She returned to Texas and has held various positions in higher education.
She lives and works in Los Fresnos in the Rio Grande Valley of far South Texas.
© Ruth A. Keitz