� Art�
Haworth Artist Bursts With A
Compulsion To Create
S
ince he was a young boy in Englewood Cliffs, Russ Rubin has been bursting with a compulsion to create. Long bottled by pragmatic notions and a headlong adventure down the rabbit hole of the music industry, it’s come gushing out in explosions of color, shape and dimension. His escapist color-block worlds speak to the collisions between nature and civilization, between the world outside and the infinite worlds within. Inspired as much by whacked-out old cartoon backdrops as Nike ACG and artists from Stuart Davis to Nina Chanel Abney, Rubin’s “Dream Lands” seem to dare us to hurl ourselves inside them, into the possibilities of a beauty beyond rationale. From doodles in little notebooks and on spare bill envelopes to finger-drawn digital mockups, the images finally creep onto the canvas, ever evolving as Rubin slaps on layer after layer, tweaking curves and hues, building up dimension in the paint as he sweats and squints and rubs out his eyes in his basement lair, making and breaking the rules as he goes, hunting down that ever-elusive balance around the bend. An artist and writer from the enchanted woods of New Jersey (he now lives and paints in Haworth), Rubin is an Artist-In-Residence at Harlem and Hackensack hospitals. His paintings have been featured at the White Space Gallery in Chelsea and at the YouTube Studios. He is currently knocking out private commissions whilst chasing a 3-year-old around a basement. To learn more about Rubin or see more of his art, visit his website at www.russrubin.us or his Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/russrubin. ■ 24
