Ruth Owens

Lives and works in New Orleans, LA

Artist statement

I am a muddy river, and the sun bright moss, and a fat-bellied spider. I am this wild, wild world, but we are not aligned. I am comfortable and drunk on extracted fruit and I am lost. I long for a bygone relationship of mutual respect with nature in all its treacherous beauty. As a Black artist from the Southern United States, I dream of reconciliation between prevalent anthropocentric tendencies and the natural world. I feel a deep kinship with the land, which like our culture, can be a supportive site for personal expression and peaceful self-affirmation. And more darkly, our culture shares a certain vulnerability with the land. Like the natural world, African Americans have been subject to extractive practices which continue to threaten our culture and survival to this day.

Artwork