Know The Member - Cindy Ruskin
Get To Know The New Shul Member: Cindy Ruskin, Oil painter and mixed media artist
New York City artist Cindy Ruskin works in a variety of forms including oil painting, gold leaf, encaustics, animation, book arts, and collage. In 2006 she had a solo exhibition at the Matthew Marks Gallery in Chelsea, NYC, to benefit the Duk Lost Boys Clinic in Sudan. Her works have been included in New York City exhibits at Lincoln Center, the Center for Book Arts, Umbrella Arts Gallery, the Pen and Brush Gallery, and at the California Museum in Santa Rosa.
After growing up in South Africa, Cindy moved to the U.S. where she received a BA in art history from Harvard, specializing in historic materials and methods -- while also working on stage sets and animated films. Later, Cindy took art classes at the San Francisco Art Institute, California College of Arts and Crafts, the S.F. Art Academy, New York's Center for Book Arts, and the Art Students League.
With the goal of using art to teach and build community, Cindy has worked on several projects with the low-income children in New York City. She created a mosaic for the the women's room on the first floor of the Lower Eastside Girls Club. She was the art director of Lower East Side Bike Parade where she ran workshops, helping neighborhood kids decorate their bicycles. Since 1999, she has run the art program at Avenues for Justice, an alternative to prison program for juvenile offenders. She also taught art at the Lower Eastside Girls Club and volunteered in New York public schools, teaching art history and giving museum tours.
Cindy wrote the 1998 book, The Quilt: Stories from the Names Project, which was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, and she co-wrote the Academy-Award-winning HBO documentary, COMMON THREADS: Stories from the Quilt.
To find out about Cindy's latest works, follow her on Instagram: @cindyruskin_fineart OR on her website: www.cindyruskin.com