Annie Ruth: Learning with Art
The best way to describe Annie Ruth is as a bright ray of sunlight on a foggy, hazy day. When she walks into a room, her spirit is a reminder of hope and positivity. She brings her authentic self forward and hopes to inspire others to do the same. Not only is Annie a talented artist and educator, but she's full of compassion and wisdom, and her enthusiasm for life is truly contagious. Even after many difficult obstacles in her path, she’s living proof that strength and determination can move mountains.
Interview by Kelsey Graham. Photography by Heather Colley. Hair and makeup by Annie’s niece, Jovian Bailey.
Where did you grow up?
I actually grew up in Cincinnati. I spent about eight months in Atlanta when I was a teenager, so I went to school down there for a while for most of my 10th-grade year. It was after a family tragedy. I stood out like a sore thumb [laughs].
Why did you stand out?
My accent, my northern accent. They knew right off I was not born in Atlanta [laughs].
How’s your time been growing up in Cincinnati?
It’s been great. The thing I love about it is that I’m a product of Cincinnati Public Schools. When I came out of Aiken High School, it was both a vocational and a strong college prep program. So I went to the principal and asked to go down both tracks. They let me do the college prep and the commercial art vocational track. So that’s where I got my professional training in art, right in high school.
What did you focus on?
It was commercial art, so I was doing magazine ads, but everything wasn’t computerized. So we were cutting films for color separations manually. I had a great instructor; he actually designed the logo for the Cincinnati Bengals in the ’80s. The other advantage of that commercial art program was that I competed in state and national competitions.
That’s great! And what did you do after high school?
I went to the University of Cincinnati and spent my first year in their Design, Architecture, and Art program. I married a year after starting college and relocated to California, so I ended up switching colleges and majors. I switched to interdisciplinary studies major with a business minor. I leaned more towards an educational focus of utilizing my artwork.
What brought you back to Cincinnati?
I had my first child out there, and I was thinking about where I really wanted to settle down. I wanted to be somewhere where the pace was a little bit slower than California. And during that time, gang activity was on the rise, too, and I was like, “I don’t really think I want to raise the family here.”
Your website bio noted you spent eight years in the United States Air Force Reserve; how did that happen?
After I finished that year of college at U.C., I realized, “Okay, I really need something to supplement my education.” So I enlisted in the Air Force Reserve and got a guaranteed job as a graphic technician. My training in high school at Aiken actually allowed me to bypass all of the formal schools, and I went straight to on-the-job training as a graphic technician in the Air Force Reserve. I was doing training materials, magazine ads, magazine covers, Black History displays, and war preparation presentations.
When did you know you wanted to be an artist?
Oh, I knew that at age three. My mom always emphasized that my art was a gift from God, so I used it to the fullest. I often tell a little humorous story that my first art exhibit was on the blank pages of our family’s encyclopedias because [laughs] I drew all over those pages.
So you always knew you wanted to be an artist?
I did. I wrestled with whether it would be a career. My mom battled with mental illness as I was growing up, so there was a part of me that wanted to become a doctor.
What prompted you to mix visual art with poetry?
It really started the first year of college at U.C. In some of the drawing classes, I would draw, and then the verse would just come naturally. And so whatever I did, I would write some verse to go along with the illustration. Another family tragedy catapulted me into sharing the poetry; before marriage and my own children, my sister’s son died in a fire. The first time I ever publicly shared my poetry was at his funeral.
What work of yours are you most proud of?
Oh, my goodness! I’m really excited about the work that I do for children. I didn’t start out doing work for children. It was prompted by a visit to my niece’s kindergarten class. As I began to share the art with the students, you could see the light bulbs just going off, and it grew from there. At that age, they’re so free; their imaginations are so vivid, and, without too much prompting, they really grasp that sometimes you can look at things, and there are no right or wrong answers.
What are you currently working on?
I am currently working on developing a curriculum set around my exhibit called On Her Shoulders. Last year I was a recipient of the Truth and Reconciliation Grant from Arts Wave, so I created On Her Shoulders to share the perspective of Black women and how we’ve had to carry the weight of the world. Right now, I’m developing the arts integration curriculum, connecting music to art, and connecting math to art.
Where is your exhibit?
It was on display at the Cincinnati Museum Center, and now it’s kind of on a break until I get the curriculum set together. Then we’ll get out to where the reproduction exhibit tour can tour along with the original tour. That way, we’re able to connect the schools and the lessons around art that way.
When do you loosely plan for that?
It should actually be this summer, and next school year, it’ll really blow up. I’ve actually been doing a lot of the lessons already. I’ve done writing workshops with students at Chase, and right now, I’m working with students at John P. Parker School. Then during the summer, Cincinnati Public Schools has a program called Summer Scholars, and I’ll be able to take the art and pull out writing and other arts integration with the students. That’ll be occurring in June-July. Then I’m doing a documentary on the whole process of creating that educational set.
Can you talk about your background and experiences in being an arts educator?
It started first with the community. There was a church that I worshiped with that gave me the freedom to begin producing Black History Month programs. Once I started engaging the community, I saw how utilizing visual art, poetry, and music all tied together.
So when I returned to Cincinnati in the early 1990s, I began working with nursing homes and doing cultural presentations. I was one of the first artists in the [Cincinnati Arts Association] Artists on Tour Program, and to this day, I’m still a part of the program. When [Cincinnati Arts Association] developed their Arts in Healing program, I was the inaugural artist for that project as well. A lot of what I’ve done has been able to open the doors for other artists to follow behind me. I think that’s what I’m most excited about, that other artists are able to follow behind me.
Can you talk about your work in the community?
Oh, my goodness. I love my work in the community. I have a community arts studio over at the Old Jewish Community Center. I’m able to do workshops in the community as well as help train other artists. To me, it’s my lifeblood and inspiration. Not only am I inspired by the young people within my own family, but I’m still inspired by the artists that are coming up behind me as well. They keep me relevant and active.
What inspires you?
Life. Life inspires me. I try to keep a journal or a pad and pen next to my bed cause sometimes I wake up – I might dream about an idea. My daughter often teases me about one of my favorite pieces, called Metamorphosis I am the Change. It was inspired by a butterfly hair clip. One day the hair clip was just clipped to my lamp over at my drawing table, and I just saw the head and the beautiful arms extended, and she teases me, like, “Wow, you created this beautiful butterfly painting that was inspired by a hair clip.”
What’s been the hardest part of your journey?
To be quite candid, living in Cincinnati and sometimes the such defined colorism and racism that’s in kind of your face, and the discrimination and bigotry that just sometimes hits you hard. It can sometimes be discouraging. But I won’t let it break me, I’ll keep moving forward. That’s a lesson I learned from my mom; if there’s something you’re passionate about and you want to do, you won’t let the obstacles stop you from doing it. You do it the best way that you can until you grow and develop. That’s actually how my first book came to life after I shared the poetry at my nephew's funeral. I went to an older mentor, and I was like, “I’m ready to publish a book,” and they said, “Oh, you can’t do it, you don’t have enough money.” But I went back to the lesson that my mom taught me, that when you really set your mind to it, even if obstacles might be there, you keep pushing.
What is your favorite part about your work and journey?
You know what, my favorite part is running into people on the street who my work may have impacted in a positive way, and I might maybe have forgotten, but they won’t forget me. Like the little children who might run up to me in the grocery store and say, “Hey, that's Ms. Annie Ruth!” That’s rewarding. It’s also rewarding to see, now that I’m 58, children who have now raised children and how I’ve impacted generations, not only my own children and their children but in the community as well. You can’t buy anything like that.
Do you feel like your work has changed through your timespan?
It has because when I started doing more international travel, it made me more mindful of making work that many different cultures can appreciate without changing the context of the work. When I did the On Her Shoulders exhibit, both adults and children can view the exhibit from their perspectives. So utilizing the bright, primary/secondary color palette, big, bold shapes, and textures brings in the younger audiences. But I can also dive into those deeper themes. There was this one piece that I did called Your Silence is Deafening. It’s a big black “X” across the mouth, but it still has very bright, bold colors, so the adults can see the sensitive racial themes that might flow through the work, but at the same time, it’s not traumatic to the younger viewers that are looking at the work, too. I pride myself on that kind of multi-audience integration. The whole goal is that you’ll come, you’ll view it, and that you’ll always come back and see something like, “Oh, I didn’t see that.”
What’s been some of your international travel work, and how did you get started with that?
Oh my goodness, I first got started with my international travel work, of course, with the military. But professionally, here in Cincinnati, I got started with a partnership between the Cincinnati Museum Center and the National Museums of Kenya. It was an international, cross-cultural project called, In Their Own Voices. Three inner city schools in Cincinnati learned about the culture in Lamu, Kenya, which is predominately Muslim. I did workshops with the students here in Cincinnati and workshops with the students in Kenya. Oh man, it was awesome to do.
That’s so great. We’re all looking for connectivity, and art is the best way.
It is. I think it’s the most non-threatening as well. You’re able to deal with some sensitive topics. One of the feedback that I got from the exhibit at the Cincinnati Museum Center was that the colors and the shapes, and the way I depicted the topics are inviting, so even if I’m talking about racism, I didn’t have to draw a picture of a police officer with his knee on George Floyd’s neck to talk about it. I did a piece called My Sister For Real For Real, and I just kind of intertwined a black woman and a white woman, and it was kind of somewhat abstract, and there were different signs. One said, “Say Her Name,” and one had the eight-minute time and the nine-minute time. There was another sign that said, “Womanism or Feminism.” Just enough to get people talking. But at the same time, still deals with complementary colors, primary colors, and secondary colors for the younger audience to stay engaged too.
What advice do you have for women, especially women of color?
My main message that I always say is: Be your authentic self, even in the midst of phoniness around you. It takes a lot of courage, it takes a lot of strength to be your authentic self. I think one of the best ways I visually reinforce that message is in the way I wear my makeup. I was talking with my niece, and I was like, “I don’t wear makeup to cover any imperfections. I wear the makeup to bring out the beauty that is already there.” Be who you are because even if you might be saying or dealing with the same topic or subject that someone else is dealing with, no one has your voice or your experiences, and the world needs to experience you. So that’s my message, not only to women but to artists and people in general: be your authentic self. Everybody’s not gonna like my artwork, and everybody’s not gonna like my style, but it doesn’t make me feel any less of who I am I’m not comparing myself to them because to me, I’m brought into this world to impact the people, and I’m meant to impact them by simply being me and embracing that freedom to be me.
Who is an influential woman in your life?
It may sound cliche, but it’s definitely the truth: my mom. In October 2020, she passed away. But she was really the major influence in everything I do. To watch her experience mental illness in a time with so much stigma, and it was so taboo, to watch her breakdown but yet not stop, to watch the love that she poured into us and the sacrifices she made as a mother influenced my role as a mother.
Is there anything else you feel is important you’d like to discuss?
I never knew – it’s amazing; being a mom, I was like, “Oh, this is such a joy and learn, and you see yourself in such a nurturing kind of way.” But being a grandmother – they call me “Bibi,” which is Swahili for grandmother – I’m able to nurture and yet disciple and correct, but a little bit more on the fun side. I’ve also embraced my community role as a mother. I did the Black Lives Matter mural during the COVID lockdown. And I realized it was really on my last trip to Nigeria where, you know, and they always refer to the elders as “mama,” so being [downtown] for three weeks and being called Mama Annie Ruth. And then, when my Nigerian son came to visit the states, I became “Big Mama,” and in Nigerian culture, “Big Mama” is the grandmother. It doesn't necessarily mean you’re their biological mother, it just means that I respect you and your role as an elder. So I’ve embraced my role as a community mama now.
Women of Cincy is a certified 501(c)3. This belongs to you. Consider supporting future stories with a donation.
Do you know an awesome Cincinnatian? Nominate them here! New features launch on Mondays.