Ruth Dealy

Ruth Dealy

rdealy@ruthdealy.com

Website: http://ruthdealy.net/

   Providence

I am an artist who has lived and worked in Providence, Rhode Island for 34 years. I am interested in the tension between what is seen and what is felt. My work falls into two major groups, self-portraits and landscapes. Both are constants, mutated by time, light and season. I try to paint directly from my eye to my hand, without the shadow of editorial opinion falling in between. In The Land Of The Blind is a series of paintings created from looking out of my second story studio window at a Providence city park over a period of around two years. During this period I gradually lost my sight, which changed my painting from an observant dialogue to a kind of terrified prayer said over and over. This change from a linear narrative to a place without time was like an instant modernism. Once I could see again I was thrilled with the presence of the blind paintings but I was, Thank God, unable to reproduce that feeling of void, loss and terror. I have gone back to celebrating each leaf, twig and ray of light, but this time I am aware of the darkness.