Ruby Driscoll
Two Fold 2024
Acrylic, ink, pastel, oil, glass powder
24 x 24 in
$850.00
“Two Fold is a painting I created when I first moved to New York in May. Before moving, I had been making oil paints out of red dirt collected from the front range in Colorado. This process allowed me to practically incorporate my surroundings into my practice, while drastically altering the life cycle of the dirt.
After moving to New York, I became aware of an unusually fast-paced biorhythm. Specifically, I started noticing the trash bags outside of my apartment. Each day the pile changed. It became larger, smaller, more pungent, less pungent. Sometimes one of the trashbags was ripped open, exposing the rejects of the week. Even if the pile changed, there was one constant: It was always there. I started collecting artifacts from the trash bags that I found compelling. Pictures, scrap metal, grocery lists, and glass.
For my painting 'Two Fold', I decided to experiment and incorporate glass dust into my oil paint. At first, I used the glass dust with ink intuitively to create the background, but then the racehorses were born. Observing the constant flux of birth and death that encompasses New York made me think about what I find valuable, or rather, what I don't find valuable. I started thinking about the life of a racehorse, how a creature with sentience and knowledge is forced into retirement (or even killed) after it no longer pleases those that it is supposed to entertain. I thought about how quickly I am inclined to rid myself of “garbage” the second it becomes an inconvenience to me, and I captured that inclination in this painting.”