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. The use of the ubiquitous window envelope explores how window envelopes morph from USPS detritus to art materials and then to doors with windows.
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. (“Well-known” artists who also participated in the Carnegie Institute program include Philip Pearlstein and Andy Warhol.) After graduating with a BA in art from Allegheny College in Meadville, PA, 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 at the University of Texas at Austin. However, it was her father who ran a part-time business painting lines for parking lots and crosswalks and directional traffic arrows who claimed to have taught her how to paint while she worked for him summer evenings. Perhaps there is more truth than fiction considering the linear structure of much of her work. After completing her graduate studies, she taught art in the San Antonio ISD and then went to the Anchorage ISD as Art Coordinator/Director of Art and then served as Executive Director of Curriculum and Instructional Services. Her other teaching experiences include various colleges and universities in Alaska and Texas.
© Ruth A. Keitz