We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Ricardo Ruiz. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Ricardo below.
Ricardo, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Let’s jump back to the first dollar you earned as a creative? What can you share with us about how it happened?
The first time i earned money for my art was in the 5th grade at my Catholic elementary school. Once the kids found out I could draw, they would pay me a nickel to draw superheroes, cowboys, and various animals. I kept an empty Pepsi bottle hidden under a stairwell at the school and after school, I would take the empty bottle as a deposit, head to the store down the block from the school and buy a soda with the nickel earned that day. I drank a lot of soda….
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
As a child, my father would sometimes talk about what he thought his children would grow up to be, and he always said I was going to be an artist. I apparently began drawing pictures at a very young age and I don’t remember a day where i didn’t draw. My first images were cowboys on horseback and then comic figures from the newspaper. I always thought I would grow up to be a comic book artist but I took a painting class in college and it ruined me for life. At first, I just wanted to depict something as accurately as possible. As I practiced and grew comfortable with the medium, i began to introduce narratives into the work. I am descended from a line of storytellers and it felt natural to use that influence in regards to my work. I guess the thing I’m most proud of is the standard I set for my work. I know I will never be as good as the artists whose work influences me, but I will never offer a painting or drawing that wasn’t the best I could do at that moment.
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
I knew from the moment I had decided to pursue my art that I was essentially taking a vow of poverty. I know how few artists can actually make a full-time career from their art, but I was prepared for that. After earning my BFA, i began building an art portfolio with the intent to applying to graduate art programs at some universities. I didn’t expect my father to die soon after my graduation. He was a very old-fashioned man with old-fashioned values; he never let my mother work outside the home or learn to drive. We still had a mortgage on the house and bills to pay, so I dropped the grad school dream and kept the job I had while I was going to school. Life did what it does, I worked nights at my job as a supply tech at the hospital and converted my bedroom into a paint studio. We lived that way for a few years until the mortgage was paid and my mother could collect Social Security. Around the same time, i fell in love with a girl and we married and began having children. Now i needed the job for the family health insurance. So we bought a house and i would go to work, have dinner with my family, then go to my studio for three to four hours every night. I never gave up the dream of being a painter, and my wife, my mother and my sister all supported me in the pursuit of this dream. I moved up the company ladder to become the manager of my department and in 2017, after 37 years with the hospital, my family convinced me that it was time to take the plunge and become a full-time painter. I now earn my living from my art. In that 37 year span, i had built a body of collectors who supported me and introduced my work to others at every opportunity. I’m still poor but as happy as I have ever been.
We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?
The emergence of social media has been a boon for my practice. My eldest son introduced me to facebook and instagram; he showed me how to add photos to my timeline and all the other features they provide. Once I got comfortable and began showing work there, i began receiving inquiries for sales. I have had a core group of collectors who were always looking to buy work from me, but they were all in Texas, mainly South Texas. Facebook introduced my work to a much broader audience and now a healthy part of my work goes out of state. My advice is to look for groups within fb and ig that share your interest or may be interested in your type of work. I don’t have a gallery that shows my work and haven’t had a gallery affiliation in years, so these two platforms have taken the place of galleries for me.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.ricardoruiz.art
- Instagram: ricardo_ruiz_the_elder
- Facebook: Ricardo Ruiz the elder
Image Credits
Ricardo Ruiz