Author: Ruth Chase

ARTIST • MOTHER • COMMUNITY MEMBER raised in VENICE, CA. I’m on a path that I never expected. Starting out as an oil painter that led to filmmaking, creating multi-media installations that include audio, social media, video, public art, and social engagement. My focus is on energy, working with concepts that reflect what it means to be human.

What Does It Mean To Be A Woman

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What does it mean to be a woman, a question I have never explored until this very moment.

From an early age, I noticed that being a “girl” put me in a place of vulnerability and I was very aware that physical danger was awaiting me if I wasn’t careful. So as a young adult “woman” I would make sure that my clothes and persona were tough enough to scare away predators.

Now I look back and see that it wasn’t until bearing a child, at the age of 40, that I began to connect with my womanhood. I was getting in touch with my body and its functions specific to having a child and becoming awakened to the physical characteristics that make me a WOMAN. I loved being pregnant, I loved my body and being able to hold another universe within.

I have spent a lot of time rejecting the expectations put on me by the outside world of what a woman is or should be, or should not be. I have never been sure of how I fit into the expectations of the world around me. I also, at times, did not want to own the power and blessings that come with femininity. On the inside, I felt like I hadn’t decided if I wanted to be feminine and on the outside, I knew to be a tomboy or punk sent a message to leave me alone, I’m not open for this “girl” business. Sometimes I wonder if I would have chosen to be a woman in this lifetime if I were given a choice before I was born. I suppose I have also been pissed off about being a woman, now that I think about it. So far, the most amazing thing about being a woman has been birthing my daughter, who by the way is VERY girly and VERY feminine. I’m having an ‘aha!’ moment writing this. I may even need a good cry.

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Beyond the Frame – Museum of Northern California Art – Panel Discussion

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I will have the most challenging painting I have ever made exhibiting in the Museum of Northern California Art. I am so proud to be representing VENICE in this exhibition about the value of street art to our communities.

MUSEUM OF NORTHERN CALIFORNIA ART
900 ESPLANADE
CHICO, CA

Beyond the Frame Panel Discussion | August 26

Beyond the Frame Exhibition
July 19 – September 2, 2018

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SEE and hear more about Leonard

“Never Forget Where You Come From, Always Remember Where You’re Going” by Ruth Chase will be exhibiting this month at part of Beyond the Frame. Street art often has a reputation as part of a subculture that rebels against authority, although it can also express a political practice, and serves as just one tool in an array of resistance techniques.

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Racial Literacy | BELONGING to the Land

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RACIAL LITERACY CAFE ON BELONGING TO THE LAND
Sunday, July 29, 3-5p
 

Inspired by Ruth Chase’s ambitious multi-media installation about the land we live on and the notion of belonging, Racial Literacy, Nevada County offers a free, facilitated community conversation in the World Café style at Summer Thyme’s where the BELONGING Community Exhibition, curated by Ruth is on display. 

We are collaborating with Chase to expand her artistic intention by creating the opportunity for local residents to experience, as she states, “powerful insights that allow people to find a sense of belonging within their community.” We also welcome Nevada City Rancheria Secretary Shelly Covert. 

Join us to talk with each other in a real and candid way about our own sense of belonging along with our relationships with the Nisenan people and this beautiful region that the Nisenan have called “home” for thousands of years.

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Yes, SHE Persisted

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SHE Persisted an event by YubaLit  |  Featuring Author Bridget Quinn

Yuba Lit She Persisted by Ruth Chase .jpg
Ruth Chase on May 31, 2018 at SHE Persisted

This is an essay I read at SHE Persisted about how I overcame a time in my life when I was the most discouraged and wanted to give up being an artist. It starts and ends with a self portrait I painted that changed my life and was the first step I took to create my own “rags to riches” journey. Well, not so much not riches in the form of money.

Stronger Than You Realize large file Detail copy
“Stronger Than You Realize” close up

Spring 2015: I’m on the back end of my 40s, and this time I’m going to really give up. Pursuing an art career feels hopeless, and the uphill battle I’m fighting right now is more than I can handle. It’s 4:00 am Monday morning—hot coffee, cell phone, Facebook app, and the dog. Every week my husband will be gone from Monday to Thursday or Friday. I’ve committed to homeschooling our only child; I feel lost, I feel alone. Every bit of my spiritual energy is being given to our beautiful daughter who will turn 10 in May. I had no idea that motherhood would take this long or be this hard, that I would feel so disconnected from my dreams and my art. I’ll be 50 before ya know it; I don’t have the time or energy to pick up a paintbrush. “Who am I kidding? Get a real job! I’ll never be a working artist.” I’ve been through this before, but this time it’s different.

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On Friendship and BELONGING

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The BELONGING project is a journey I’m taking with the community of Nevada County. Every week I ask a question on Facebook that explores how we find a sense of belonging. Here is the question I asked most recently.

How do the friendships you had growing up shape your sense of belonging now?

Growing up I felt an incredible pain from feeling like I didn’t belong in my own home while I dreamed of belonging where I wasn’t wanted, with my dad. My dad and I shared the same looks and big personality, I felt comfortable with him because we were alike. As a child my friendships often reflected these same family dynamics, feeling like an outcast in friendships that I perceived I didn’t belong in because I wasn’t enough. Further making me feel incredibly insecure about if I would ever belonging with anyone, anywhere. I think that is why I cried so much on my wedding day, someone wanted me to “belong” with them. To this day I rarely feel like I fit in with most people so I cherish the relationships where I do feel a sense of belonging. After many years of rejection from the art world, I have come to realize that none of it is personal and that I belong to myself first and foremost.

Ruth Chase and Marla in Venice, CA
Ruth Chase and Marla in Venice, CA

So, how do the friendships you had growing up shape your sense of belonging now? 

I BELONG HERE Pop Up

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2017 ongoing

A pop-up installation where Ruth asks people if they want a hug and if she can take an instant photo of passers-byes, then encouraging them to hang the photo where it could be seen as a reminder of their importance and value to their community. The backdrop is a pop up photo booth intended to be a personal encounter with another human,  changing the roll of the selfie from an isolated “look at me” photo to a visceral experience that involved contact and purpose.

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Sketch Artist for Dead Files

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In 2015 Ruth Chase created sketches for “No Vacancy”,  filmed at The Holbrooke Hotel in Grass Valley, CA. for a TV reality program called The Dead Files on The Travel Channel.

MEETING AMY ALLEN
Amy was a freaking trip, in all the best ways. An incredibly interesting, strange, distant, and focused person—she was the real deal. Sitting with her felt like being with someone who was hallucinating. My guess is that she was reading spirits and energy the whole time. As we sat in a hotel room to film the scene, sitting across the table from each other, it felt like she was reading me, or the room around me. Her eyes darted back and forth, over and around me, but never looked directly at me, even when I spoke to her. I loved every minute of it. After our scene together, I sat down to draw what she had described, both on camera and off, texting her photos of the progress to ensure the image matched what she saw. The hardest part of drawing a quality piece was dealing with all the distractions that pulled me away from being in my own space of channeling. Though, I wouldn’t have wanted to mix in with the energy there, so I guess it worked out for the best.

NO VACANCY

Retired NYPD homicide detective Steve DiSchiavi and physical medium Amy Allan investigate paranormal activity at a small-town hotel in Grass Valley, California. Their separate investigations take harrowing turns as Steve uncovers the hotel’s history of destructive fires and scandalous violence, while Amy comes face-to-face with the deranged dead during her overwhelming walk.

The Travel Channel

A brief clip from No Vacancy
Ruth and her daughter on set for Dead Files
by Artist Ruth Chase
VIEW RUTHS PORTFOLIO

Shelly Covert | BELONING Project

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Shelly Covert was born and raised in Grass Valley. Her family goes back long, long time – countless generations before the Gold Rush. They are from the original people who were here, the Nisenan Indians. Shelly is the Spokesperson and Tribal Council Secretary – Nevada City Rancheria Nisenan Tribe and Executive Director of the 501c3 non-profit organization, C.H.I.R.P or the California Heritage: Indigenous Research Project.

Photos by Lori Lachman

Shelly Covert for BELONGING
Shelly Covert for BELONGING
Nisenan Baskets at Firehouse Museum Photo by Lori Lachman
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A sample of the interview of Shelly Covert with Ruth Chase, recorded by Radu Sava.

After meeting Shelly I decided to create the BELONGING project; about how people find a sense of belonging through the land. Their answers sit in a strange dichotomy as Tribal members feel a varying “personal” sense of belonging having lived here in their ancient tribal homelands never having been removed. Individuals have family, friends and community connections that help them to BELONG. But, when asked if the Tribe as a whole feels a sense of belonging, the answer was quite different; and how could it be any-other-way after their people were nearly annihilated during the Gold Rush.  The Tribe itself is invisible. The Tribe is “terminated”. The Tribe has no local value that can be seen by the community. This is in contrast to many of their personal feelings of home, community, and belonging. The Nisenan are a vital link to our own sense of belonging to the land, as the roots of our community tree; the relationship they have held with the land can teach us how to connect with it ourselves.

To learn more about the Nisenan and Shelly Covert click here.