Cindy RuskinOil Painter and Mixed Media ArtistCindy Ruskin is a mixed media artist and oil painter whose work radiates with imagination, humor, and a profound appreciation for the natural world. Originally from South Africa, she holds a BA in Art History from Harvard University and has studied painting in San Francisco and New York City. After college, Ruskin moved to San Francisco, where she built a diverse creative career as an illustrator, animator, set designer, window dresser, greeting card designer, graphic designer, storyboard instructor, reporter, and writer—all while continuing to create paintings and mixed media works. In 1997, Ruskin relocated to New York City to become a full-time artist. Instead, she devoted more than two decades to empowering young people through art. For twenty years, she led art classes at Avenues for Justice, an alternative-to-incarceration program for juvenile offenders. She volunteered extensively in public schools, teaching art history, developing curriculum, and guiding museum tours. As the art director of the Lower East Side Bike Parade, she led workshops that helped neighborhood children transform their bicycles into rolling works of art. At the Lower East Side Girls Club, she not only taught art but also created a large-scale mosaic for the organization's new building. When the COVID-19 quarantine ended her teaching work in early 2020, Ruskin returned to her original calling, dedicating herself full-time to oil painting. Her canvases explore themes of wonder and joy, often drawing inspiration from poetry and the beauty of the natural world. In recent years, Ruskin's paintings have been published in Studio Visit, Art Seen, Photo Trouvée, All SHE Makes (Issues #2 and #5), The Purposeful Mayonnaise (Issues #2 and #5), Women United Magazine, and GoddessArts Magazine. She has been interviewed by Art Feeds Souls, Clover & Bee, and Strictly Magazine. Her profile appears on the White Columns Curated Artist Registry, and she has exhibited at The Townhouse Gallery, Ridgefield Guild of Artists Annual Juried Exhibition, PxP Contemporary Gallery, TMP Gallery, Camelback Gallery, Arts in Square, and the Arts to Hearts Project. Earlier exhibitions include a solo show in Times Square, sponsored by ChaShaMa, and a guest show at Matthew Marks Gallery, benefiting the Duk Lost Boys Clinic in Sudan.While living in San Francisco, Ruskin authored The Quilt: Stories from the Names Project after reporting on the AIDS Quilt for PEOPLE magazine. The book was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. She also co-wrote the HBO documentary Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt, which won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature in 1990 and a Peabody Award.