"Maturity and Its Muse" Exhibit - Artist Interviews Series Two

By Roxanne Phillips

We are pleased to present to you our second in a series of interviews with artists whose works are featured in our current juried exhibit at Art Saint Louis, "Maturity and Its Muse: Celebrating Artistic Experience 2021." This exhibit presents works by 45 STL regional artists from Missouri and Illinois who are age 70+. The show is on view April 19-May 20, 2021 in our Gallery at 1223 Pine Street in downtown St. Louis, Missouri.

We proudly introduce you to artists Ruth Andre and Marceline Saphian.
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RUTH ANDRE

Featured in Art Saint Louis’ “Maturity and Its Muse: Celebrating Artistic Experience 2021” (April 19-May 20, 2021): Ruth Andre, Sikeston, MO. “The Meadow. 2020, Acrylic on Paper. 9”x12”. $250.

Roxanne Phillips: What was it that first prompted your career/activity as an artist?
Ruth Andre: I loved drawing as a kid and I remember a Saturday TV program, “Learn To Draw”. The viewer was encouraged to draw along with the artist. I loved seeing a drawn image come to life on the paper. The arts were not an interest my parents enjoyed or even appreciated. If I wanted to draw it was something I did once chores were completed.

When I entered college, art was a class I had to take for my education major. I dreaded the whole idea and was terrified to take the classes. What I found was a love that had been almost drowned in childhood. I loved each assignment in the art and design classes.

As life would have it there were many obligations in my adult life and art went on hold once again. I took art workshops and worked in craft mediums like basket making. I started a basket kit business designing beginner baskets for children. The business grew with one order for 30,000 basket kits coming in after a big craft fair in Chicago. The basket kits were purchased by teachers and home school parents studying the Indian culture.  I felt Wild Pony Baskets was a real learning tool to help children understand what came from an earlier culture.

Painting was always on my mind and when I turned 59 I asked myself if I really wanted to paint and if so, when was I going to start? So with my 60th birthday just over the horizon I started painting every day. At first I painted landscapes and then traditional animal portraiture. I was lucky to find a gallery in Texas to carry my paintings and patrons that purchased my work. I painted mostly horses but my favorite animals to paint were cows and pigs. Cows don’t have to be pretty and pigs are so comical.

Then a major change started showing itself in my painting. My work became more and more abstracted until abstract and nonobjective works were all that I was painting.  

Ruth Andre. "Postcard From the Canyon.” 2019. Oil/Wax, Wood Panel, 18”x24”x1.5”. $1,200.

RP: Why do you make art?
RA: Art has become a part of me. It is a healer, a friend and a joy in my life. At one point I lost my hearing and it was a very difficult time. I found that when I painted, the paintings spoke for me. I could share who I was with my art. I was still a whole person. I have since received a Cochlear Implant and am back in the hearing world. Painting is my way to express so much of what I am.

Ruth Andre. “Robin’s Roost.” 2021. Acrylic on Wood Panel, 11.25”x12”. $500.

RP: What was your career path? How did you get to being an aspiring artist to doing it?
RA: Once I started painting, marketing and good luck followed. A gallery in Texas contacted me and asked me to send a few paintings.The director had seen my work on a group website and asked me to send a few paintings to the gallery. I submitted my work to the "Cattlemen’s Western Art Show" in Paso Robles, California. My work was accepted and I attended for the next ten years. A gallery curator in Santa Fe, New Mexico asked if I could send paintings for a new gallery opening. It was a good time and I enjoyed my western art painting days.

I had always enjoyed visiting the Los Angeles County Art Museum and seeing artist’s shows like Rothko and thought how wonderful it would be to not have a template but to paint with only composition and color in mind. I then started using a palette knife instead of a brush and my work based in tradition started its abstract journey.

The Internet made it possible to take classes online so I continued working with new mediums and learning new techniques. I would say the act of painting everyday is what makes an artist. The “Doing It” comes from hours and hours of painting and moving paint around.

Ruth Andre. "The Tailor’s Son.” 2021. Acrylic on Paper, 6”x4”. $250.

RP: What is your preferred way to exhibit and sell your art?
RA: It isn’t always possible but I like meeting the patrons that like my art. I love talking with them on why art is important to them. If one of my paintings is chosen then I like hearing why that painting had meaning for them. I like knowing where the painting will be displayed and enjoyed? I like knowing my wayward-child-painting has found a good home.

Ruth Andre. “The Garden.” 2020. Acrylic on Paper, 4”x6”. $250.

RP: What advice would I give my younger artist self?
RA: I am not one that likes to second guess why I did or did’t do something but I would recommend that I do my best to fulfill my dreams no matter how busy or how scary they may seem at the time.

Ruth Andre. “The Lake.” 2020. Acrylic on Paper, 4”x6”. $250.

RP: What qualities attract you to other artist works?
RA: I love art. I love following artist’s works online. There are so many things that attract me to an art piece. Mostly I love seeing competence of good composition whether it be a landscape or and abstract painting. The artist has an understanding of the world within the canvas he/she is creating.

Artist Ruth Andre presenting an in-gallery workshop in 2019.

Artist Ruth Andre presenting an in-gallery workshop in 2019.

Artist Ruth Andre presenting an in-gallery workshop in 2019.

RP: What motivates you to continue making art?
RA: My motivation to create art has become my oasis to enjoy what comes from my mind to the canvas. Just walking into the studio fills me with energy to paint. The act of painting rewards my love of composition, color and design.

Ruth Andre. “Crows Feet.” 2021. Acrylic on Panel, 5.75”x14”x1.5”. $450.

RP: On what are you currently working?
RA: I am painting a series of large paintings for my gallery, The Art Spirit Gallery in Coeur d’Alene, ID. My work is being featured the month of September 2021. I was moving along getting my portfolio of works ready when the gallery called saying they had a water pipe break and several of my paintings in inventory had been damaged. They were in the process of planning a Grand Reopening and wanted me to ship nine new paintings. It has been a busy time and I have been working on new works that I like and hope the gallery and patrons like as well.

Artist Ruth Andre.

Learn more about Ruth Andre: www.ruthandre.com and www.instagram.com/paintocher
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MARCELINE SAPHIAN

Featured in “Maturity and Its Muse: Celebrating Artistic Experience 2021” at Art Saint Louis: Honorable Mention recipient Marceline Saphian, Chesterfield, MO “Times Two.” 2019. Monotype/Montage, 26”x38”. $950.
Artist’s statement: “I like keeping plants around my house, and they always seem to provide plenty of ideas for artistic expression. With their many variations of shapes, forms and colors, I never tire of new ways of seeing them, and expressing their energies.”

Marcline Saphian: From the time I was a little girl, I knew I wanted to be an artist. Paper dolls were all the rage then, and I drew new clothing designs for the bought paper dolls, but soon created my own paper dolls too. Small three dimensional table towns grew from scraps of paper, paper bags, and shirt cardboards - because it was the depression, and good paper was hard to come by.

Marceline Saphian. “The River’s Secret.” 2018. Monotype, Montage on Paper, 18.5”x24”.
Artist’s statement: “This is part of the continuation of work form my “Changing Landscapes” sketches.”

Marceline Saphian. “Seeking Connections.” 2021. Monotype, Montage Mounted on Canvas, 24”x48”.
Artist’s statement: “This composition tells of people seeking relationships again after being quarantined.”

Art was always my best subject at school, and helped me achieve better grades in other classes that didn’t interest me as much. But when it became time to choose a career, my choices were clear. (Art school was out of the question because it was too expensive). A woman became either a secretary, a nurse, or a teacher! I chose teacher because I could at least teach art. Teaching and supervising elementary school art was challenging and rewarding, but left little or no creative energy to produce my own work. After an illness in 1958, I retired from teaching to work in my husband’s Optometric office, and began to work on my own creative endeavors. At the same time, I was teaching some adult night classes, and private children’s classes.

Marceline Saphian. “Don’t Sit There.” 2019. Monotype, Montage on Paper Mounted on Canvas, 24”x18”.
Artist’s statement: “I love playing with color and enjoyed setting this up and working with it.”

Marceline Saphian. “Washed Ashore.” 2020. Monotype, Montage on Paper, 18.5”x23”.
Artist’s statement: “We never know what is headed our way… washed ashore!”

Through the years, I’ve enjoyed working with many types of mediums. I moved through sketching and painting live models, to still life and landscape with oils, and then acrylics and interpretative painting in the 70’s. Next came mosaics from colored stones and various wood and ceramic scraps, then fiber work with sewing, tying and knotting combined with driftwood and metal. The 80’s were full of acrylic painting and serigraphs. It was also when I eagerly learned to weld, and had several years of meaningful experiences with it. But when I realized it could become a health hazard, I reluctantly gave it up. Then I learned the mono printing process. It “caught “ me, and is now my main medium.

Marceline Saphian. “Set Free.” 2021. Monotype, Montage, Collage, 21”x13.5”.
Artist’s statement: “This is one of my newest artworks which represents the freedom felt after getting both COVID-19 vaccines.”

Marceline Saphian at work in her Chesterfield, MO studio.

The years from 1990 through the present have brought me new and diverse ways of creating and using the monotype process, and mixing it with other mediums. I feel very fortunate to be able at 91, to have the means and the energy to keep producing. My process at present is to cut up many older unfinished monotypes, and combine the myriad of wonderful pieces with new beginnings and new ideas. This creates a continuum which is very satisfying to me, and helps me investigate and communicate my thoughts and feelings through my love for creating.

St. Louis area artist Marceline Saphian.

Marceline Saphian at work in her Chesterfield, MO studio.

Learn more about Marceline Saphian: https://marcelinesaphian.com/home.html
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Roxanne Phillips is an artist and art educator based in St. Louis since 2001. She earned a MFA in Printmaking & Drawing from Washington University in St. Louis and BFA in Painting & Drawing from University of North Texas. Roxanne is an adjunct art instructor at Washington University in St. Louis and has worked with Art Saint Louis since 2017 as Administrative Assistant and Installer. From 2018-2020 she was Master Printer for Pele Prints. Her works have been featured in numerous exhibitions throughout the St. Louis region including at Art Saint Louis, Crossroads Art Studio & Gallery, and St. Louis Artists’ Guild. Her work is currently available at Union Studio in St. Louis. She has served as exhibit Juror for several regional exhibits & art fairs. Roxanne is past Board member of St. Louis Women’s Caucus for Art.