ARTIST STATEMENT
I’ve never been drawn to pink – that soft, feminine, comfortable color – until now. Pink has been calling to me, maybe yelling even. As I look back through my work, it’s been there, waving, and must have just gotten impatient with me. Just as landscape soothes me, so now does this hue. I’m using it in every piece I can think of.
These pieces, for example. From a recent series called “Future Wanderings” they are a foray into a bit more abstraction, contain both a reference to the horizon, and the warmth of pink, along with layers of mark-making. They serve as records of decision-making, choices, and plans, while reflecting the joy of scribbling and mixing colors and layers. Serious stuff, but fun to create, they’re a record of the journey with a sense of hope.
My work investigates our surroundings and how they interact with memory, permanence, change, and regrowth. By capturing images and layering collage elements, I create abstracted viewpoints that explore timelessness, familiarity, and recognition. Individual elements and marks, specific to a time and place, are obscured by layers of paper and texture, asking you to come with me on a journey of recognition as we all try to find our place in the world.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
In her search for a sense of belonging, Liz Ruest has traveled, moved across the continent, and researched her ancestry through documents and genetics. And for the last 20+ years, she’s used photography, printmaking, and collage to communicate that quest and findings. Trained in computer science and technical editing, she applies her sense of organization and love of improvements to rearrange digital elements and create visual inventions of landscape, texture, and place. Liz has exhibited regularly since 2001, and participated in Pacific Northwest, national, and international shows, both juried and by invitation. Her work is in private and public collections, and she is represented by Lynn Hanson Gallery in Seattle.
© Liz Ruest