RUBY HOMAN

they/them/she

I am a Berkeley based visual artist. A painter by passion, a Death Midwife by spiritual practice, and barista for the stories. I have fallen in love with the transmutations of internal to external experiences through the acrylic medium. Born and raised in Southern California, I dove into creating visual alternate realities to somaticize my experiences and connect with myself, creating morbid psychedelia and still life from a young age. I discovered that I could wear the art I create in the world as a means to metamorphosis, a literal shedding of my skin, and a way to understand the forced politicization of my body. I paint my body and my clothes to recreate the map a little bit. Through working in community mental health and being within recovery modalities, I have found reprieve from chaos and a pathway to connect with further through the artist body; how we be and move as art, how we relate and heal as a creative process. After struggling with addiction, I got sober in San Francisco and catapulted within myself, especially through painting. I was able to move experiences without having to have the words. This is why I create not only what I create, but create at all. My own personal recovery heavily influences my work due to having to relearn intimate creative processes. I create things to help me process the life and death I have experienced. Ultimately, I create because it feels natural. Sometimes each piece is my whole world, and other times it is just a thing to do, a daily personal practice to keep me honest.