Hello and welcome to my website; here, I will attempt to document my art from the past 20 years to the present. Some background: In December 1958, I was born , raised, and continue to live and work in Corpus Christi, Texas. My father, Jose Benavides Ruiz, worked as a butcher; and with my mother, Ofelia Tamez Ruiz, raised 3 sons and one daughter. My mother remembers me drawing from about the age of 4 and it has been a life-long pursuit. My images usually come to me in those moments between sleep and wakefulness; and it's only later that I'm usually able to decipher them . Sometimes they make no sense to me at all, but the image will beg to be painted. I'm not comfortable asking people to pose for me, so I usually paint my family members from memory whenever I need a human presence. When I was single, I would use myself or my sister and brothers; nowadays, Janie and I are raising three boys of our own: Ricky, Robby and Quintincito (my youngest). They've now become the models for most of the recent work. The majority of my paintings deal with the themes and imagery of family, the cycles of life and death, as well as Mexican-American folklore. When I say Mexican-American, I mean of the South Texas variety, of which I am a life-long member.
I hope you like the work...
All images copyrighted property of Ricardo Ruiz
