Tamara Ruiz

Tamara Ruiz is a contemporary artist working in a number of mediums, primarily mixed media.  She lives on a small farm in Nebraska with her husband, Bob, three shelter dogs, a herd of rescued mini donkeys, a really pretty horse, and a stray cat named Barney.  Living in the midwest her entire life – Missouri, Illinois, Kansas, and now Nebraska – has impacted both the style and subject matter of her work.

Her mixed media work combines vintage photographs and ephemera with the modern aspects of paint, surface design, and imagery of the graffiti on trains that pass by her farm. Her work consists of strong shapes and a well-defined color palette influenced by the small towns and open prairies of her environment, as well as by the graphic style of old postcards and vintage photographs populating local estate sales and antique shops.  The juxtaposition of the old and the new gives her work a contemporary twist.