Tag: earth artist

Resilience with our Ancient Ancestors

Reflections

Resilience with our Ancient Ancestors from JENNIFER RUGGE on Vimeo.

 Resilience is the ability to recover.  We travel through life seemingly alone, but we are like others, thinking we know the self we are.  Our ancient ancestors experienced this same road. The appearances of difficult times speak loudly to gain our attentions and intentions as throughout history as we continue to uncover its depth, truth and reality.  

So I asked myself, “What do these times tell me about the self I believe to be?  What can I do or change within myself first to find resilience and a future?”  

Beginning with my individual self is the first step to any needed change.  For me it is an awareness of love, a deeper love for my sense of self asking to feel comfort and protection.  To share this with others comes through my art; it influences and directs the internal desire.  I hold this as the basis of resilience for my attentions and intentions and hope that others may find it, see it and connect in some way.  This is where our ability to recover grows.  Tracing the resilience of our ancient ancestors has enabled all of us to be here today, to move forward together.  

This path as an artist has shown me alternative ways to understanding our original roots through my own ancestral DNA trail, the study of Cave Art and artifacts, and the early knowledge of language expressed in signs and pictographs.  Because of my deep interest in historical roots, my digging into the ancient past has led me on an intriguing journey.  It began with the early Italian fresco painters.  The preparations of minerals into paints, writing in the illuminated style, and gold leaf applications that were used to capture the customs, symbols, and stories of the time.  This, then opened my sense of self to another dimension of spiritual perspectives in life as well as the curiosity of our ancestral cave dwellers and sojourners.  Together, these speak through my art along with creating an eco-friendly studio, using natural mineral paints and earth friendly products. 

From my Studio

Studio Visit

Another update is underway during these stay-at-home orders —

The Art council here in Nevada County has asked for photos, videos, or poetry/stories of where you spend most of your time during this “stay at home” policy in California. In my studio, at home is where I spend most of my time…preparing, thinking, creating inspirationally… in paintings, writing and sculpting. Enjoy the journey life sets before you. Enjoy!

Chalkin’ It Up: Street Art Challenge Response

Features & Fanfare, New Works

I put the challenge out there and YOU have answered! From Coast-to-Coast, street art has been flowing-in as folks all over are taking on the Street-Art-Challenge I put out last month. It’s been such a joy watching all the clips, photos, and videos of your artwork come in over the last month from YOUR STREET to MY STREET, offering such meaningful connection during this strange time. BIG Thank you to all who participated…here’s a compilation of a bit of what I received:

In more news…

Here is a video showing how I begin the process of a painting with mineral paints and gold leaf.

  1. I mix natural minerals from the earth with walnut oil along with softened natural beeswax.
  2. It is applied by using different tools: paintbrush, eco-friendly thinner, palette knife, or rib.
  3. In this painting, handmade and recycled papers are applied with a hand mixed plant based glue and left to dry thoroughly.
  4. The charcoal pencil is used to create a basic sketch of images on the surface.
  5. From here the background and foreground areas are worked with paints to create varying thicknesses of richness in color.

Finished Work is up at this online gallery:

Home Project, Osborn Woods Gallery, Nevada City, Ca. 

Home is Within: Home are the Stories from Within;
who I think and believe I am. 

RuggeJ_StoriesfromHome

From out of the Fire

New Works

Working with the guidance of artist, Deborah Bridges, who creates phenomenal figurative sculptures in clay, I have taken up the endeavor to bring the images from my paintings into 3-d.

After many experiments with different clay bodies and mineral test tiles, I am creating these images through the process of pit firing. I dug a small pit into one of our raised beds for easy access. Then I built an enclosed space around this pit with fire bricks, stacking them to keep heat inside but a bit of air to breathe. I collected various materials from our surrounding forests for fuel. I waited for cold rainy days to set-in and prepared the pit along with the bisque clay figurines. I added different layers of combustibles under, around, and over each sculpture to encourage variations in the burn process. The fire was kindled. It burned all day, smoking nicely after I placed a metal cover over the top. It smoked throughout the night into the wee morning hours when only heat from the lower part of the pit still felt warm. Then carefully each figure was removed. Aww, the thrill of it all! Such magic!

Statue from the pit