Ruth’s art-making process begins through fragmentation and re-combination of sections of her previous paintings in order to create anew. Juxtaposing these painted pieces into new compositions forms an initial cohesive surface. While this stage is primarily a process of physical assemblage, using construction methods such as gluing, taping and affixing to a support, it is also a process of painterly decision-making. Fragments of material, which are already painted, now become an integrated surface upon which a new painting can be started.
The lines which she paints upon these constructed surfaces are traced and projected from drawings which further integrate the materials of her practice. Motifs get repeated from painting to painting, intersecting across multiple layers connecting past surfaces to present and future decision-making. A visual connective tissue thus emerges which reinforces the cyclical nature of Ruth’s material processes. Through painting these recycled motifs again and again, on painted surfaces that are repeatedly fragmented and re-combined, her focus turns ever inward to the act of making itself.