NAOMI RUIZ

I first became interested in the arts, specifically drawing and painting, in

middle school to help express thoughts and emotions in a school system
that labeled me as a student with a learning disability.  The use of
expressive, and gestural brushstrokes that convey an intense level of
emotion. I draw inspiration from personal, generational, and culture
factors. My current works’ intent is to explore the layered vulnerabilities
associated with anxiety and trauma.  The figure devoid of specificity
through shape, age or gender is a starting point in my work expressing a
“state of being”. I intend for my audience to relate to and/or have a better
understanding of generational trauma that is passed on from generation to
generation.  In my research the book, The Body Keeps the Score, by
Bessel Van Der Kolk, M.D. has been essential in understanding trauma in
all its manifestations. It has helped me broaden my work beyond just
personal experience.  Some of my formal decisions help the viewer relate
to the unseen aspects of trauma such as, working with unstretched canvas
to reinforce the idea of body and skin, and my color pallet which
deliberately resembles flesh and bruises. Three painters who have been
influential in the development of my own artistic style are Austrian Painter
Egon Schiele, and British painters Jenny Saville and Lucian Freud.