There is an exhibition that is the result of an eight month journey I’ve been on with California Heritage: Indigenous Research Project (CHIRP), “The Story of Land, Water, and People.”
In the Summer of 2023, it was so exciting to create and co-lead an outdoor experience at Sierra Friends Center/ Woolman in Nevada City, CA where the Tribal youth and elders went into the woods to create art installations with a focus on belonging to the environment.
This experience was part of a larger program to engage in Cultural practices and protocols as tools for healing, Cultural revitalization, and trauma mitigation.
I’m deeply grateful for this opportunity to amplify Nisenan narratives through the Arts. This journey has instilled in me a profound appreciation for the transformative ability of storytelling through artistic expression.
Working with Shelly Covert, Saxon Thomas, Mira Clark, and the Tribal Elders through weekly workshops, online and at ‘Uba Seo: Nisenan Arts and Culture, has been a very powerful experience.
Using the power of art to engage in meaningful dialogue, to heal, and to educate the public and ourselves transform lives.
Funded in part by the California Arts Council, a state agency, through the Upstate California Creative Corps program and builds upon CHIRP’s Visibility Through Art initiative. It fosters collaborations between artists and Tribal culture bearers to increase public awareness and engage the community in discussions about Tribal social justice, Nisenan history, and environmental issues related to water and land.
I am a California Creative Corps Grantee through my work with CHIRP.
Saving the best for last……
The exhibition is the result of a journey the Tribe embarked on through a series of gatherings and workshops that centered on discussions about land, water, and people. The eight-month exchange resulted in the creation of paintings, drawings, beadwork, film, and sculpture.
OPENING ART RECEPTION Saturday, March 16th, 6- 9:30 pm
EXHIBITING Nisenan Tribal Member Artists: Shelly Covert, Ginger Covert, Lorena Davis, Sarah Thomas, Cindy Buero, Debra McBrien, Saxon Thomas Participating Artists: Nikila Badua, Maile Claire, Mira Clark, Ruth Chase, Jan-Michelle Sawyer Native | Nisenan Special Guest Artists: Tiffany Adams and Deerstine Madrone Suehead
The Story of Land, Water, and People will build on the foundation of CHIRP’s Visibility Through Art (VTA) initiative. This project coordinates collaborations among artists and Tribal Culture bearers to increase public awareness and engage the public related to social justice, through the lens of environment-related issues including, land, water, and people.
In addition, non-Tribal artists collaborated individually with CHIRP on artworks to create respectful and reflective works. These conversations come to light in this exhibition by utilizing art as the conduit. This event will promote the visibility of important Tribal social justice issues and expand conversations.
This activity is funded in part by the California Arts Council, a state agency, through the Upstate California Creative Corps program, administered by Nevada County Arts Council.
My art on 9th and O St. is an extension of my studio paintings and video work that reevaluate the roles women have resisted and submitted — highlighting the wisdom women embody beyond limited role models.
Ruth Chase is a multimedia artist whose work speaks to the value of people to their community—working with themes of belonging, visibility, and what it means to be a human. Ruth is a graduate of the San Francisco Art Institute whose artistic practice is inquiry-based and engages community bridge-building. She was awarded a Certificate of Appreciation from the City of Los Angeles for Art in Action and a grant to an individual artist from the Carl Jacobs Foundation. She was granted a residency at the Millay Colony for the Arts in NY, published in Professional Artist Magazine, Catapult Art Magazine, and Huffington Post, and has taught at the Crocker Art Museum. Ruth was a featured artist on the Dead Files TV program and was awarded an Artist in Residence at Nevada County Arts for Artist Activating Communities through a grant from the California Arts Council for three consecutive years. Her film BELONGING screened at the 18th Annual Nevada City Film Festival and Wild & Scenic Film Festival. Ruth received the Legendary Female Artist of Venice, exhibited in The Crocker Kingsley, the Museum of Northern California Art, and the Diego Rivera Gallery at the San Francisco Art Institute.
Ruth Chase, BLUR: Unraveling the Feminine, Masculine, and Everything In-betweenShe Remembers Everything, acrylic on canvas, 40 x 60″I Am Many Things At Once, acrylic on canvas, 54 x 50″, 2021With, Without, acrylic on canvas, 48 x 48″ A collaboration with Luciano Mota
Center for The Arts | The Granucci Gallery 314 W. Main St., Grass Valley, CA Tuesday – Saturday 12 – 5 PM No appointment required
Ruth Chase BLUR: Unraveling the Feminine, Masculine, and Everything In-between August 6 — September 11, 2021
The Granucci Gallery is excited to present BLUR: Unraveling the Feminine, Masculine, and Everything In-between, the gallery’s first solo exhibition of artist Ruth Chase’s work. On view from August 6 – September 11, 2021, this exhibition consists of portraits and figurative paintings, video, an art film, and a public engagement piece. The show is a collaboration between Ruth and more than sixty volunteer participants. There will be a public reception from 5-7 pm onFriday, August 20.
Ruth’s work is fueled by collaboration. Using video and paint, Ruth challenges traditional roles prescribed by society, exploring feminine and masculine traits that embody all genders rather than being defined by one’s outward appearance. The work presents contrasting viewpoints, encouraging the viewer to come to their own conclusions. The exhibition is a gaze into a broader experience of being human and ever-evolving.
Motherhood opened a world within Ruth, both painful and empowering, inspiring her to depict on canvas the complexity of the mother/daughter relationship. Experiencing her daughter’s adolescence awakened memories within her, causing a deep reflection on how our childhood shapes us as women and the role vulnerability plays in our development. Her studio paintings capture fragile moments taken from her daughter’s selfies. Other paintings in the show come from images sent in by men and women looking at the masculine-feminine spectrum.
Because collaboration is essential to her work, Ruth began conversing with people on Zoom to generate a sense of community and escape the isolation of 2020. Thirty conversations took place over a year; Ruth spoke with people worldwide who shared their insights on many topics beyond the initial question of what it means to be a woman. The conversations encompassed health issues unique to women, feminine empowerment, insecurities, teen pregnancy, motherhood, and balancing masculine and feminine energies. Often the conversation gravitated to gender and sexual identity, challenging cultural norms, and working around rigid stereotypes.
Ruth presents her subject matter in an accessible exhibition that is neither definitive nor a statement about feminism but rather a glance into the lives of everyday people and their thoughts and feelings about women.
Ruth paints in acrylic on canvas, blurring the lines with drips and intersecting patterns, shapes and edges. Gray is a dominant color to represent gender neutrality, allowing the viewer to bring more of themselves to the work without being drawn into commercial stereotypes of the feminine. The paintings are created by layering several thin washes of color to impart a sense of history, experience, and emotional complexity.
Her video work informs the paintings and delivers a broader perspective. The art film is a collage of moments that allow the viewer to connect with unlikely perspectives, finding a sense of belonging with someone they may see as “other.”
Participants include Michelle Amador, Eileen Bryant Archibald, Karla Kaizoji Austin, Be Boggs, Adrienne Boudreaux, Catharine Bramkamp, Adrian Card, Mira Clark, Brooke Condon, Colleen Graham, Brynn Farwell, Elma Jella’, Beatriz E. Ledesma, Gabi Markham, Chandra Merod, Luciano Mota, Nona, Michelle Litton Ogaidi, Rey Otis, Cassie Robertson, Steve Roddy, Aqueila M. Lewis-Ross, Shōkai Sinclair, Kim Stewart, Dana Divird Stevens, Valerie Hiestand Stuart, Andie Thrams, Tia Tuenge, Casey Louis Travis, Melody Be Watson, Nicole Weaver, Jen Rhi Winders, and Carolyn Crist Wright.
The Venice Tribute Wall provided a space for the public to share their stories, memories, and memorials related to Venice installed as part of West of Lincoln Project installed at the Venice ArtsGallery.
For two years, Yo! Venice has followed Venice-raised artist Ruth Chase as she worked on a series of large scale paintings, recorded audio interviews, and collected the stories of those who have, and do call Venice home.
The West of Lincoln Project traces the history of Venice through the people who grew up in the neighborhood. This Saturday, August 5th, at Venice Arts, the Project opens. On the eve of her exhibition, Chase shares how she feels about the changes to the community and why she will always be a Venice woman.
How do you feel?
Other than excitement, I have a little fear, some anxiety mixed in with a deep sense of love and pride from Venice. It’s been a journey that I have not taken alone, up to 300 people have participated in this project along the way. I suppose that is what has kept me going. This project has held a lot of emotion that has collected along the way. I’m not so stressed about the opening, I know the opening will be off the hook, my anxiety is more about showing up as a whole person when I have played small most of my life. Some will dig the paintings, but I think what makes this event powerful is that it is real and from the heart, mixed in with memories about the Venice that most people will relate to or go away with a greater understanding for a city that has all eyes on it.
The stories of those who have, and do call Venice home. Courtesy: Ruth Chase.
What was it like hearing the Venice stories of so many people who grew up here?
It’s been life changing. I’m sure I have listened to well over a 100 Venice stories over the past two years. The other day I was editing the audio that goes with the West of Lincoln painting, and I couldn’t stop crying because everyone had this special bond with Venice, past, and present. It made me realize what a sense of belonging really is and that it doesn’t go away. I heard once that you can’t know who you are until you know who you’ve been. Listening to the stories made me realize just how tough Venice was, not just for me, but for most people. People that grew up here tend to be authentic, outspoken, protective, passionate, and what you see is what you get kinda people.
Can you share an example of a particularly moving story you discovered?
Ohh that’s a tough one, they all moved me in one way, or another or I wouldn’t have been able to paint them. I think one that stands out for me is Gloria Olivas Omar because her insight was so unique. She titled her painting “Place of Strength” for a very moving reason. When I interviewed her, I knew she was completing treatment for stage four breast cancer. My first question was how Gloria was dealing with all of it. Her answer was that she held a vision of herself as a little girl. That her less than perfect childhood actually empowered her, that those years would serve her as an adult and fuel her inner strength. My take on it was that when children are hurt, they know only to look for love, that is their instinct, even in the worst of circumstances. As we worked on the painting over the three months, she impressed on me that it takes courage to love. If you have that, you win!
“Going through cancer was nothing compared to what I went through as a kid, but it has required the courage of that little girl from the beach. I never thought that the challenges in my childhood would be my source of strength, but it is. There is strength in innocence” – Gloria Olivas Omar
One other to choose from would be Ananda Jaynes photo submission for “West of Lincoln” painting. It’s an image of her holding her little brother Joe, walking down the boardwalk with their mom who would pass away from cervical cancer. Joe and Ananda wouldn’t see each other for over 30 years shortly after the picture was taken until Joe’s wife saw the image of the painting online and was able to contact Ananda. Now they are all meeting at the Opening for the first time in 30 years. That was awesome for me to be a small part of that.
Chase’s childhood home at 523 Rialto Ave in Venice. Courtesy: Ruth Chase.
You grew up in Venice. What were your thoughts on Venice before and then after working on the Project?
BEFORE: Growing up here I knew nothing else. The only thing that was clear in my head was that we were poor and that outside world looked down on where I lived and how we lived. It was us and them.
In 2014: I walked around Abbott Kinney Blvd., I felt sick to my stomach and confused. If I were visiting someone else’s home town, I would love all the fancy shops, the good hipster food, but not when it was in my Venice. It felt like I had landed in another time and I couldn’t identify anything I knew about “home” or as a place that I had ever been before. I felt very displaced. Where the fuck was I?
AFTER THE PROJECT: I can see now that I used this project to work out the multi layered relationship I had with Venice then and now. Now I see Venice as an energy; it’s alive, it’s ever changing, and it has people who live there that really, really care about it. My hope is that others will understand Venice better through these stories. That as Venice moves forward there could be an understanding of the energy that Venice has, and has always had, and to respect it and work with it, on both sides of the dollar.
Chase in the 80’s on the roof of her home on Rialto Ave. Courtesy: Ruth Chase.
Has the Project changed the way you think about Venice? If yes, how?
YES, BIG TIME. Now I understand why there is so much local pride and protectiveness about the outside world moving in. No different than any other small town, except Venice people have an edge. People think of Venice as LA but really it’s been a small town for a long time, many of it’s older residents staying primarily within its borders. Since this project, I can FEEL Venice, not just as a place or concept in my head, but as a living breathing place with energy that has a current running through it. I will never see Venice the way I did before because I know that the culture here is built on a vibe that shouldn’t be taken for granted.
Venice by Ric Clayton.
What was the biggest thing you discovered working on the West of Lincoln Project?
Two things, one is that streets smarts have value and while street life is often romanticized by the mainstream. These life lessons are valuable to our culture, and for anyone who LOVES Venice, they could learn why and how Venice got to be the way that it is. If people want to keep Venice alive and real, they may want to understand the people who have lived here for awhile.
And secondly, I took much of my childhood that wasn’t great and was able to find value in the pain and suffering, which will forever change me moving forward. I no longer look back on my life and see it with judgment or ignore the dark days, but rather use my past to empower me.
Chase’s Self Portrait ‘You’re Stronger Than You Think’. Courtesy: Ruth Chase.
Will you always be a Venice girl?
YES, anyone who grew up in Venice feels this way. When people ask me where I’m from I say, I live in Nevada City, but I’m from Venice. Venice is my emotional birth home; no other place can replace that. There is a quality inside me that makes me feel different from other people when I am away from Venice, when I’m with Venice sisters and brothers, I feel something that is the same.
The West of Lincoln Project exhibition is at the new Venice Arts gallery space, east of Lincoln, at 13445 Beach Avenue. Join the opening reception on Saturday, August 5th from 4:00 pm – 8:00 pm. The exhibition runs until September 1st.
Chase in her studio with her dog. Courtesy: Ruth Chase.
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