Ruth Pycke shares her inspirational story of how painting helped her overcome the most difficult times in her life. A newer artist, Ruth started painting at the beginning of the first quarantine in 2020.
“I was bored and also going through a little bit of a depression and just wanting something to take my mind off everything. The first things I painted were really random things like animals or really anything that came to mind. I was just practicing and I would watch YouTube videos, like Bob Ross.”
As you can see from her instagram account (@myhomeartstudio90), Ruth’s art has been focused primarily on scenes of Chicago. Inspired by local artists she follows on social media, Ruth began reaching out to photographers to collaborate on projects with them.
‘I knew that very early on, I wanted to do a collaboration with another artist to experience and know what that's like. So, I started looking for photographers instead of just taking a picture off of Google. I was like, why not put a face to this like picture and let other people know who this person is and we can promote each other.”
In addition to the collaboration, Ruth felt it was important to share a portion of her commission when she sells the painting. It’s that type of selflessness that has enabled Ruth to create incredibly meaningful friendships, beyond just art.
“I've gotten to know people on Instagram on such deep levels. It's been really cool; I've actually made some really good friends there. A year or so ago, I lost my husband and the amount of people that came, were supportive and loving and caring, or even donated to the GoFundMe account was amazing.”
Tune in as Ruth shares her emotional and inspirational story of how art quickly became more than just painting for this artist.