“I use a variety of mixed media techniques including block printing, solvent and wax transfers of photocopied drawings, as well as encaustic techniques to produce a body of work that crosses over from printmaking to painting.These works are meant to allow the viewer access to a state of contemplation. Through them, I explore notions of coupling, uncoupling, sharing space and being alone. I seek to explore the aftermath of denying each other, denying the self, and finding that nothing is truly destroyed. Material choice is paramount to the work I create. Potatoes transform into orb-shaped printing blocks conjuring both fingerprints and growth rings. Local soil becomes pigment, referencing place and the potential of deep earth as a quiet incubator for growth. Layers of oil paint, pen work, and Xerox transfers intermingle and settle preserved under skins of encaustic wax. Time, solitude and space offer us the expanse to focus our energy into the present moment and to growth - despite what propagates near us. All around us is chaos, both within the limits of our flesh and the unending bounds of our global community. I seek an antidote to chaos.” Ruth Loveland was born in 1982 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. She graduated with a BFA in studio art from The University of Oklahoma in 2005 and lives and works in Norman, Oklahoma. She has exhibited work in Chicago, New Orleans, Kansas City, and Oklahoma. Her current work consists of mixed media two dimensional work, but her background is in oil painting, conceptual drawing, writing and collecting projects.