Ruby Hahn’s Artwork is on Display at the DBA’s Front Office Gallery Through Mid March 2021
Acrylic and Mixed Media Artist from Billings, Montana, Ruby is a local emerging artist working with fluid acrylics and other mixed media to create large-scale statement pieces. She is inspired by the natural world’s inconspicuous relationships and interpretations.
Throughout her paintings, she explores the connections between the microscopic and macroscopic realms.
Ruby primarily uses acrylic paint, water, and spray paint to create reactions on canvas based on the inspiration found in the environment. She seeks to bring to light the patterns noticed when it comes to color, dimension, and structure. Over the last several months, Ruby has been studying color theory which is emphasized in her recent work.
Artist Statement:
What is it about getting close to something that makes us feel like we know it more? Is it because we are exposed to specifics that we cannot see from afar, or with the normal eye? I find the significance of details fascinating and want the viewer to examine the connection between diminutive attributes in correspondence to the entirety of a subject. The whole is other than the sum of its parts, it has an independent existence.
I want to shape perception by playing with the minutia versus the immensity of a whole. The viewer is forced to become a lens and build a personal viewing experience where one moves physically from seeing the whole painting to a more intimate proximity, almost touching the canvas at the microscopic level. It is at this closeness they become aware of the distinction and affinity of details embedded in the whole image. As the viewer steps back to gain their first perspective, they have not only adjusted physically, but have returned to a more general analysis of the piece. Their understanding of the imagery recomposes with the larger viewpoint. This fluctuation of perspective represents my interest in microscopic explorations that lead to isolating and evaluating tiny particles of a greater whole.
Throughout my investigation, the viewer will find a sense of play embodied in the ornate and ambiguous elements. These formal elements are used to represent the malleability of human perception as it morphs and changes with the viewer’s proximity. It is the little things that come together, rearrange, and reassemble to give us the awareness of the vast.
ArtWalk may be formally canceled but we are continuing to celebrate and highlight the work of local artist in our gallery, feel free to pop in and view Ruby’s work as well as click here to be linked to Ruby’s Website for her available pieces.