Artist Bio

Ruby M. Theyson is an intuitive abstract artist working in the liminal space between memory, ritual sensation, and quiet knowing. Shaped by her California roots and the hushed rhythms of her life in North Carolina, her paintings unfold as layered offerings; textured acrylics, charcoal, candle wax, and natural materials gathered into surfaces that feel both ancient and intimate. Each mark holds the residue of what has been lived and the soft echo of what remains just beneath the present moment.

Her process is a form of listening. Rather than directing the work, Ruby allows each piece to emerge slowly, guided by feeling, recollection, and the subtle pull of inner landscapes. Candle wax moves through the work as a ritual element; melted, layered, sealed and carrying the same reverence found in her practice as a chandler. The paintings become vessels for fleeting moments, nostalgia, and the depth of embodied experience records of what lingers when words fall away.

Alongside her painting practice, Ruby is deeply drawn to poetry and 35mm film photography. This devotion to image and language sharpens her sensitivity to light, shadow, and quiet texture elements that return within her canvases. These practices are not separate, but woven together, each informing the other in a shared ritual of attention.

At its heart, Ruby’s work is an act of presence. It is a mirror, an offering, and a gentle invocation reminding us of beauty, worth, and the quiet interconnection of all things. Rooted in experience rather than commerce, her practice invites communion over consumption. Ruby welcomes collaboration with curators, galleries, museums, publications, and fellow artists, sharing her work in spaces where it can be felt, lingered with, and held as part of a larger, living conversation.