Life & Work with Ruth Smith

Today we’d like to introduce you to Ruth Smith.

Hi Ruth, I’m so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work life, how can you bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
I was born in Richmond, VA (the youngest of three girls) but have been based in the Triangle area of North Carolina for 16 years. Growing up, I was a shy kid who mumbled a lot. I had pretty introverted parents and then grandparents who were throwing parties regularly with hundreds of people in attendance, so as a kid, I was trying to figure out where I fell on the spectrum between them. Looking at that little girl, I would never have expected her to become the confident, loud, and adventurous person I am today, who runs a business and hustles to get her art out there. So, where did that all come from?

At the root of it is a fearlessness and curiosity that was always there but just needed to be tapped into. When I was a teen, I did a lot of temp work, working short stints at different businesses and doing grunt office work. Even with the most tedious task, I made it enjoyable with some creativity. [Insert lyrics of “A Spoonful of Sugar” from Mary Poppins here]. If I were licking envelopes (yes, we did that back in the day), I would imagine who the people were that they were going to. That temp experience also taught me to adapt to different environments and how to communicate with other types of people. Through that process, I learned that I loved that – coming into a new space, figuring it out and how it ticked- which has helped me today in my business as I interact regularly with new clients. In my art, I am constantly wanting to try out new mediums, techniques, and subject matters. Over time, my work has progressively become more abstract—I am drawn more to expressing a feeling or creating a sense of something not of this world—but I do like switching it up from time to time to activate a different part of my brain. So, occasionally, you will see some figure drawings or landscapes pop up in my art.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story. Has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what challenges have you had to overcome?
It rarely is a smooth road. There are always some surprise speed bumps or potholes along the way. With my business, there have been lots of ups and downs. When I have many projects going on simultaneously, it can feel overwhelming, and I long for quieter times to work on my art. When things are on the slower end, I feel like I should be doing more, and there is stress about the future of my business. A big pothole was the pandemic. Everyone’s budgets were initially frozen, and no one was contracting out work. After a month or two of no work coming in, I went on unemployment and worried every day about the future of my business and whether I should find other work. But thankfully, things picked back up again.

My biggest struggle with my art has always been finding time to do it and making it a priority. I have loved art since I was a kid and minored in it in college, but when I had kids of my own, I went through a long period where I didn’t make any art. Between running my own business and raising two young kids, it got put on the back burner (like the way in the back, not even on the burner). Three years ago, though, I went through a divorce, and during that rocky time, I found art was the perfect outlet for me. When the world I had known for a long time was disintegrating, and there was a lot of uncertainty about the future, creating and sharing vulnerable parts of myself was appealing. I joined a makerspace in Durham, started making laser cut work, and connected with other artists. Within a year, I was showing my work in galleries, which was both terrifying and very rewarding.

I appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
For the past 12 years, I have run my own instructional design and learning development business, Rhombus Learning. My expertise is in helping clients (a mixture of university and corporate clients) to design and develop online courses. I work with instructors or subject matter experts who know the content. Then, I bring my creativity to the table to recommend different approaches, media, or technology to engage students. Then, I will help develop the courses based on these recommendations. I was drawn to this field because it’s a mixture of visual design and pedagogy, and it feels like both an art and a science. The process is very structured and organized, but my creativity (in how I design and think about learning) can come through at any stage.

I am also a visual artist. My primary mediums are laser-cut wood and acrylic. My laser-cut work is very planned, intricate, and layered. In these works, I focus on the simple structures and lines behind people, moments, or things – the branches of a tree extending beyond its limits overlap to form something bizarre and new. I love the sensory experience of working with a laser cutter – the smell of wood burning, the texture of different wood grains and how stains respond to them, and the ability to add visual depth through layering. My other mediums are acrylic gel printing and markers. These works tend to be very quick, fluid, and expressive, either expressing a conscious mood or feeling or sometimes something subconscious that evolves out of a meditative yet child-like state of playfulness and exploration. In all my work, I end up with many scraps that I treat as fortuitous new possibilities, embracing the sometimes accidental and random nature of everything.

Can you talk to us about how you think about risk?
I would call myself a risk taker (except with money). Professionally, the risk that stands out was quitting my full-time job with benefits to start my own business. It could have failed gloriously, but I didn’t even allow myself to consider that at the time. You only know once you try; if you fail, who cares? You will recover and will have many more opportunities for success. I have been fortunate to have gotten most of my business through word of mouth over the past twelve years, so I am so glad I took that leap.

In my art, I take risks when putting my art out there in galleries. I know many artists who never show their work, and I encourage them to do so because it is not as scary as it may seem at first. We all think, “People are going to judge me” or “No one is going to like my work,” but the reality is people are looking to connect with your work, and there is an excellent network of supportive artists out there. So do it! And yeah, on a personal level, my risk-taking comes through in trying new things like jumping off of buildings, eating weird foods, traveling and living in new places, and trying new hobbies (like belly dancing recently).

Contact Info:

• Website: ruthcsmith.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/woodhalfthought/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ruthcsmith/
• Other: https://rhombuslearning.com/

Image Credits
Ruth Smith