It was only one year ago that I heard about the awesomeness that is Jody Alexander. Michelle Stitz was preparing for her show here at the shop and r.r.jones was taking pictures for her. We got to talking and he told me to look up Jody’s website. I swear to you it changed my life. I had lived in Santa Cruz for 8 years at that point and had managed to pretty much stay out of the art scene (not much of an art scene in Los Gatos, where I came from). I knew nothing. Words can not explain how moved I am by Jody’s work, and continue to be stunned by the amount of talent there is in this town.
Biography of Ruby B.
Ruby B. spent the majority of her life living in a single room in a residency hotel. During the day she worked as a secretary, typically took the long way home finding treasures along the way, and spent her evenings using others words, pictures and objects to tell her stories.
She was an armchair philosopher as she commented on life, love, laughter and loss in her copious volumes – for Ruby had removed herself from the kind of life that produced the aforementioned experiences. She left her husband and small children when she found herself in a life that she was simply incapable of living. Ruby made a choice and then she had to live with it, or perhaps it wasn’t a choice at all but something she had to do.
Ruby has labeled each volume with an odd number hence the title attributed to her life’s work that was only discovered upon her death.
Events
On Friday, May 13 Jody will be here to talk about Ruby and show you her volumes in detail. She will be signing books, she was one of the artists included in the new book from Lark Books/Sterling Publishing: Masters-Book Art , and each book will come with a bookmark made by Ruby. Yes, that’s Ruby B. on the cover! Go Ruby! Tea and toast will be served.
Sunday, May 22 from 1-4pm Jody will teach a class called “the Altered Page – Found Words” Click here for more details and to sign up.
See you soon!
~Scarlett
dig it!