|
|
|
Too much contemporary art concerns itself with being trendy, cute, or merely decorative. Seldom does it brave the crowd, roar with passion. Examine any one of Joanne Beaule Ruggles' canvases - instantly you see the difference between mere technical proficiency and true mastery, with the heart and mind to guide it. If, as someone has suggested, the very act of artistic creation is one of supreme daring, a kind of spiritual striptease in which we reveal everything we have ever known or been, then in one canvas we may hope to encounter the essential Joanne Beaule Ruggles. Hers is a fiery persona. The work is vivid, intense, sensuous, and exposed. Foreshortened poses fill the canvas, loom insistent, at once emerging, fragmenting, dissolving. Her controlled placement of heroic figures within an environment deals with the shapes between objects as much as with the archaeology of gesture. A Ruggles painting is a commitment to action, expression, process - layer upon layer of gestural mark and vivid color is built up. Sensuous figures gradually emerge. In the purest sense, what we witness in the mirror of her riveting work is a picture of our own humanity - and that picture is revealing. Few things are as exciting as seeing an artist working at the very top of her bent, everything else be damned. See this work! - Bill Beeson 
"When we were told on the first day that we would be required to stand
the whole three hours of class, I groaned with everyone else... Little
did I realize the importance of standing until after I was done reading
our text (Zen In the Art of Archery by Eugen Herrigel), and I came to
class actually eager to be on my feet, anticipating the moment when my
whole body would become part of the picture on my page. I understood by
then, my goal was not making the best picture, but making the picture
that had the most of me in it.I watched, almost jealous, at the first demonstration of the day, searching more our master for the answers, not the art she produced. I watched as, with eyes closed, a person appeared under her hand, full of all the life its creator had given it - not just with her hand, but with her whole body, heart, and soul. It was as if the figure on the page was a testimony of the energy within our master, not of our master's skill with charcoal, and somehow she had transferred her energy to the charcoal, adapting it as an extension of herself, as was the page she used."
- Allison Watts |
