Artistic Frame of Mind

During the long days of the COVID-19 lock down, Ruthie McKenzie turned to art for comfort and unveiled a hidden talent.

During Covid-19, the word “quarantine” took on new meaning. When Governor Kemp announced the closure of all public schools in Georgia in March 2020, Ruthie McKenzie was a Special Education teacher at Toombs County High School. No one could have imagined that March 13 would be the last day spent in the classroom with students at TCHS that school year. By March 25, 2020, Lionel Laurent reported on Bloomberg.com, “Around one-third of the world’s population is now in lockdown.” In the long weeks that followed, Ruthie’s life took a new path from “mother of an artist” to an artist in her own right. Today, Ruthie’s artwork is sold in art and antique stores across the southeast, with online sales to customers from Maryland to California.

Quarantine for Ruthie’s youngest daughter, Nancy, meant that instead of rushing back to school on crutches following knee surgery from a sports injury, she could now recover at home. All that extra time at home also meant that the UGA interior design student could enjoy painting again, a talent she’d discovered as a child. When Ruthie saw her daughter’s finished work, she was determined to get it framed.

Even in quarantine, stores in small towns like ours moved quickly to reopen with boxes of masks and bottles of sanitizer by their doors, making the search for a frame more possible. Nevertheless, finding the perfect frame was no small matter, as a frame could potentially inspire or distract from the artwork. Ruthie often purchased the frame first and later paired it with a well-suited painting. She hit all the little thrift stores in about a fifty-mile radius in her search until she found the frame that best fit Nancy’s artwork. In a sense, frames inspired Ruthie first.

As the days turned into weeks, mother and daughter enjoyed time at the family table painting together. Ruthie had no formal training beyond an art class in middle school, but her appreciation for art began early. “I still remember the hours I spent studying the works of the Old Masters in my mother’s big coffeetable book,” said Ruthie. Over the years, she and her husband, Greg, acquired a beautiful collection of pieces from various artists.

Eventually, quarantine ended and Nancy returned to her classes at UGA, and Ruthie to TCHS. Ruthie’s artistic journey might have also ended with quarantine had it not been for the encouragement of her family and close friends to keep at it. And when she returned to school, she found encouragement and guidance from Meredith Brodnax, the art teacher at Toombs County High School (TCHS) whose room was just across the hall from Ruthie. “I had not been painting for long, but I was eager to learn,” she said. “Every few days, I would take something to her. I’d ask, ‘What’s the problem here?’ Or, ‘How do I do this or do that?’ She was so gracious and encouraging.”

One day, when Ruthie was especially frustrated with an issue with her painting, she said, “I asked Meredith, ‘Should I even keep trying?’ Meredith said, ‘As long as you're not trying to paint a masterpiece every time you paint, and you enjoy it, you should definitely keep after it.’” Painting the imperfect was the best path to learning. Those simple words removed the pressure Ruthie had begun to feel to produce something perfect and simply enjoy the process.

Throughout her life, Ruthie had proven her willingness to continue to learn and face new challenges. Her first degree was actually in dietetics. After two years as a dietitian, she and her husband had their first child, Greg, Jr. Ruthie completely changed career paths as she learned all things construction and worked as her husband’s office manager at Greg McKenzie Builders. Two years later, their daughter Rena was born. Another two years passed, and their youngest daughter, Nancy, completed their family. Once again, Ruthie navigated a career change and worked as a real estate agent at Tom Peterson Realtors, her father’s business.

When their son, Greg, Jr., left for college, Ruthie took a position at TCHS as a special ed co-teacher which involved assisting students with special needs with testing, reading, and writing in traditional classrooms. In addition, she helped provide the students with a support system.

“I taught everything from algebra 1 to environmental science, and 9th grade lit to British lit,” said Ruthie. By 2019, she had also obtained her master’s in teaching. As construction demands exploded, she went back to work with her husband after five years of teaching.

In November 2020, Ruthie made a bold move. “Gina Lane, Benji Frost, and Harola Taylor had just opened The Red Wagon,” an art and antique market in Lyons. “I rented a small booth for my paintings there and named it ‘Rubbish.’” The paintings quickly sold, and Ruthie rented a larger booth.

One day, when Ruthie stopped by The Red Wagon to check on her booth, she discovered that someone had purchased nearly all of her paintings. “I found out later that it was Joe Amoto, an antique dealer from Savannah. had purchased most of my paintings to resell in his upscale art and antique shop, 7th Heaven, on Mechanics Avenue in downtown Savannah,” she said. “Since I have no formal training and consider myself an amateur, my prices are very reasonable, so he was buying them to resell in his own shop.”

But it was more than the reasonable price that brought Mr. Amoto back for more of Ruthie’s artwork. “He continued to buy from me and even made requests. Finally, I asked him one day, ‘What is it that you like about my paintings?’ He said, ‘They just have a pure, happy feel about them.’” It was everything she could ever have hoped to achieve.

Ruthie works in a loose style with a large brush using mainly acrylic and gouache paints. She defines her style as more of a colorist, more “abstract versus realistic. I want my work to give an impression rather than an exact representation,” said Ruthie. “If someone wants an exact depiction, they can easily take a photograph. I like for there to be a degree of interpretation.”

Ruthie’s subject matters often include landscapes, florals, still life, and with some figures. One of her more recent paintings came from a photograph someone posted on Instagram of a line of young boys from Toombs County families lined up at a “Slushi Truck” on the beach in Daytona, Florida, this past summer.

A few of the artists in whom Ruthie finds inspiration on Instagram are Joseph Gyurcsak, Teddi Parker, Valérie Pirlot, and James Richards. Visiting art galleries also a favorite pastime, as well as a way to find potential new markets for her own work. “I’ll just load up my car with paintings,” said Ruthie. “I’ll walk into a gallery with them and ask if it’s something they like. It’s as simple as that.”

In addition to her booth “Rubbish” at The Red Wagon (Lyons), Ruthie’s work is available at Lee Ann Cowart Interiors (Thomson, Ga.), Turner’s Antiques (Marshallville, Ga.), Ann Reynold’s Sunshine Village Gallery (Watkinsville, Ga.), Paula Horne’s Savannah Home Consignment (Statesboro), WestEnd Collective (Augusta), and Heather Davis’s General Store (Vidalia). She has also collaborated on projects with architect/ painter Daly Smith at his studio in Macon. A couple of her more recent projects were commissions for paintings of the Bryant and O’Conner office building on Jackson Street (Vidalia) and a large painting of the fountain at the Grand Magnolia House wedding venue in Marshallville, Georgia.

Although sales in galleries and markets are certainly fulfilling for an artist, the continual support and encouragement of family and close friends gives Ruthie her most important validation. “My greatest supporters have been my husband, Greg, my children, Greg, Jr. and his wife Julia, my daughters Rena and Nancy, my parents, inlaws, siblings, aunts, and cousins…”

I looked up from my notebook. She paused briefly, and smiled realizing I couldn’t name them all in this article although she would have loved to have done so. The importance of family in her life was evident, as was friendship. Her neighbor, Lachele Yancey, was another whose support and encouragement she greatly valued.

“Lachele has been painting for years, and was one of the first to encourage me. She still gives me advice when I need it.” The two friends paint together when they can and solve the world’s problems as only close friends can do.

Of course, Ruthie still finds inspiration in beautiful, unique frames. “Troy Reddick at the Frame Gallery in Vidalia has been a great help to me,” said Ruthie. “He cuts all of my boards and assists me with the frames.”

Some things changed during the days of quarantine that may never be the same again. (Closed water fountains and plexiglass at check-out counters to name a few). But in a sense, quarantine was a forced sabbatical. All of a sudden, there was family time. Lots of family time. Okay, so maybe a little too much family time. But had it not been for Governor Kemp’s order for school closures and the period of quarantine that followed, Ruthie might never have discovered her artistic talent as a painter.

According to merriam-webster.com, the etymology of quarantine comes from the French word for “a forty-day period.” It’s not a huge leap to connect a forty-day period to the story of Noah and the flood in Genesis 7:16b-17 (NIV). It says, “…Then the Lord shut him in. 17 For forty days the flood kept coming on the earth, and as the waters increased they lifted the ark high above the earth” (emphasis mine). The Hebrew word for “shut him in” is Strongs H5462: sāgar. One of the meanings given for this Hebrew word is “quarantine.”* God shut Noah and his family in the ark to save them and give the world a restart. Sometimes, the walls that shut us in are not so much a prison as a place of protection. And, as with Ruthie McKenzie, the time to recognize a gift for which she had yet to discover.

Find Ruthie on Instagram: @ruthiemckenzie 91 and @ruthie_and_rubbish