Artist Statement– Ruthi Dooley
Ruthi Dooley is a self-taught acrylic painter based in Belleville, Illinois. She began her painting journey in 2020 as a way to cope with cancer treatments, discovering in the process both healing and a new creative voice. Her work focuses on imaginative landscapes, inspired by the beauty and resilience of nature. With expressive brushstrokes and vibrant color, Dooley transforms natural scenes into reflections of strength, hope, and renewal.
Her art has been exhibited at Great Grizzley in Grafton, Illinois, Green Root Gallery in Belleville, Illinois, and Jacoby Arts Center in Alton, Illinois. Through her work, Dooley invites viewers to connect with the restorative power of creativity and the landscapes that continue to inspire her.
Artist Statement Elisabeth Glauber
My artistic trajectory was shaped within a family of makers. My grandfather practiced photography, my mother worked in fiber arts, and my father cultivated gardens. Aunts and uncles designed and built their own homes, even producing their own wallpaper. This collective ethos—that beauty and function are inherently interwoven—formed the foundation of my practice. I continue in this tradition, creating objects that embody both lived experience and cultural heritage.
To live among objects that honor the natural world is to cultivate reflection and reconnection. Such objects invite a slower rhythm of attention and affirm our place within broader ecological and cultural systems. My work seeks to integrate the ordinary and the unconventional, generating spaces that hold memory, sustain connection, and prompt dialogue between personal and collective histories.
My formal training with artists and educators including Maurice Grossman, Gayle Wimmer, Lois Hennessy, Doug Baldwin, and Chaim Koppelman established in me a rigorous respect for materiality and process. These pedagogical influences continue to shape my work, in which the act of making is simultaneously technical, conceptual, and reflective.
At its core, my practice is guided by inquiry: How can objects mediate between personal heritage and shared cultural meaning? How might material processes sustain remembrance while also inviting innovation? Each piece I create becomes an exploration of these questions, situated at the intersection of tradition, experimentation, and lived experience.
Elisabeth A. Glauber
EAGr designs
2025
@eaglauber
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