Today we’d like to introduce you to Ruth Crowe.
Hi ruth, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I was an Art Education major in college but I never did anything with that degree. I was in the US Army for a short while, and the LAPD briefly (during the Rodney King Trial and LA Riots), but I spent the majority of my adult life as a collegiate softball coach (Ohio State, U of Iowa, Ball State, and Iowa State). I was fired from my last job at ISU and I sued the university for wrongful termination because of my Title IX whistleblowing. That forceful exit from coaching allowed me to explore a new business concept that I created from scratch. I started utilized my coaching contacts and started a business creating personalized athletic awards. That venture allowed me to delve deeper into my creative side as I made my way back to my first love, art.
I sold that business is 2015 and began the process, ever so slowly, of becoming a full-time artist at the age of 55. In the past 10 years I have continued to be blessed with great opportunities of exposure – I won a juried award in the international art competition called ART Prize in Grand Rapids in 2024. But I started off in small coffee shops!
I am now the owner of Ruth Crowe Artist Studio in downtown Douglas – The Art Coast of Michigan – where I feature my own art and I teach workshops in mixed media.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Not smooth. Getting established as an artist – a full-time artist – is difficult at best. As I stated earlier – I started off only able to exhibit in small coffee shops. I then applied and was accepted into local art shows and eventually was accepted into the prestigious Ann Arbor Art Fair (The Original). Each step forward was ultimately leading somewhere but I had no idea where!
Obviously owning your own space as an artist is the ideal situation – a place to work and a place to exhibit your artwork. Have daily conversations with your viewers who appreciate art overall is the best part of creating!
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I primarily am using vintage photos in my artwork. Utilizing mixed media to create different pieces in assemblages or altered books or on wood panels. I continue to evolve and work with different substrates but it is, all about the story I try to tell with each piece.
In 2022 I created a traveling art exhibit called The Journal Project. The 30 pieces of art and written narrative that accompanies each piece were derived from the over 70+ journals I have kept since I was 19. It is a biographical and emotional journey through my lifetime as a Gay woman growing up in West Michigan. But it is not just a Gay story – its about the human condition and what we all go through as we try to find our way in life and the world.
(This is the exhibit that won the juried award at ART Prize in 2024)
The best part about the exhibit was having the viewers write something at the end of each venue where it was housed (Ann Arbor, Saugatuck Center for the Arts, Fort Lauderdale Stonewall National Museum, Chicago The Center on Halstead, Mott Community College and Grand Valley State University).
People shared personal things about themselves anonymously. It was gut wrenching.
But it proved the power of art and storytelling. And giving people an opportunity and space to be vulnerable.
Can you talk to us a bit about happiness and what makes you happy?
Working in my studio or being outside in Mother Nature – unless she’s cold! I think we all need a creative outlet in life. Studies have shown how important it is to our overall health and mental health. And it isn’t always about the doing – it can also just be about observing – going to a museum, being in outdoors.
I lose all track of time when I am creating in the studio. Especially when I allow myself to just ‘play’ and I am not worried about creating pieces to ‘sell’. That is where true inspiration takes place. But as Picasso said: “Inspiration will find you but it has to find you working”.
I am at the age (66) that I have the luxury of having this perfect space to just let it go and be at peace. I’m lucky. And I get to share it with other people.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.ruthcroweartist.com
- Instagram: ruthellacrowe
- Facebook: Ruth Crowe ARTist
