John Ruby

John Ruby, a native of Illinois, attended the American Academy of Art, specializing in Photography and Illustration. At the age of 23, he combined his talents to become a photo retoucher, and began exploring the digital process.  He has taken his life experiences and influences – the good and the bad – and turned them into expressive and colorful works of digital and analog art.  Later he began delving into the unknown by combining his conventional art along with digital art and photography.  

He wants people to question his work, have them open their minds and let themselves see things, and then explore those feelings within themselves.  His work is an exploration of technology and traditional art.  As technology grows and changes and his life changes, his works are unlimited.  For this new body of work, Ruby begins by painting a densely layered white surface of white paint onto a canvas.  This surface is then scanned into a computer, and he uses the lines and contours of the physical media to create the colorfully rich digital portraits.  The digital art is then printed back onto the physical surface of the paint with a cutting edge printer, and the result is a beautifully rich and layered surface texture.  From up close the works appear to be abstract, but the further back you are from the piece, the more detailed the face appears.  This effect is amplified even more when you hold your digital camera up in front of the work.