Artists Information

Ruby Rice, Mixed Media, Fine Visionary Artist

I am a full time artist. My art begins with a vision and or felt sense. These are conceived through dream, improvisational performance, meditation, trance and movement, as well as walks, swims and peaceful times in nature. My goal is to express the essence of my experiences and to maintain full connection to this feeling throughout the entire process of creation. While working, it feels like I am in a very expansive realm. I go to places where I am at times, experiencing what I sense and can only describe as, the core process of evolution.

My work is filled with fine detail. I draw, paint, manipulate my photographic images, emboss and sew. Most of my work is deeply textured with fibers, roots, twigs, hair, bones, and other found materials/treasures. Then I enlarge my creation to the desired size and print it as a giclee (high quality archival print). Once this transformation is complete, my sense shifts and I am informed by a new and very intimate perspective of the work. In this format I dive in and do what the image calls for me to do. Most often I am once again moved to draw, paint, print on, use my hand-carved-stamps, emboss and stitch, layer upon layer until I have a sense of completion, until the piece has indeed evolved.

The process of bringing forth my visions, blending images with technology and then marrying them with treasures from the natural world and recycled materials is fascinating and oh so deeply satisfying! There is a coming together through the elements of my own humanity, my female knowing. Stated simply, a profound connection and honoring of all that is takes place.

My art has been represented and sold in Galleries throughout the United States off and on since the seventies. In the last few years I have been showing right here in the Northeast:

Casa Frela Gallery, Harlem, New York City

Northampton Center for the Arts, Northampton, Massachusetts

Gallery in the Woods, Brattleboro, Vermont

Hallmark Museum Gallery, Turners Falls, Massachusetts

Salmon Falls Artisan Gallery, Shelburne Falls, Massachusetts

Green Trees Gallery, Northfield, Massachusetts

Edward Jones/Joseph LoMonaco Gallery, Brattleboro, Vermont

Visionary Healing Arts Sanctuary & Gallery, Colrain, Massachusetts



My Story

The Genesis of Visual Healing Arts and new directions


I was born with a congenital muscular disease called Myotonia Congenita.

As a child, my muscles spasmed and very often I would fall down, my eyelids would get stuck shut, my tongue would spasm & I couldn’t speak. I was miserable.

By the time I was 5 or 6, I was keenly aware of my own physical challenges and need for healing. I had a strong intuitive sense of color as a means of healing. I remember being in church and intuitively feeling the problems of people sitting around me, and what colors I felt could help them heal.  My mother sewed and I used to take little pieces of colored cloth and slip them into peoples pockets. So I began to disperse medicine at an early age!

By the time I was 10, I had discovered that alcohol relieved all the symptoms and spasms of my neurological disorder. Taking enough alcohol, I was able to run, dance and physically behave normally. I drank for 23 years. My alcoholism led to years of anxiety, depression and an inability to connect meaningfully with people, nature or the Spirit world. I had no confidence and felt like a head without a body. I sought the help of many professionals and was prescribed medications for mental illnesses. My alcoholism was not addressed and because of the nature of this disease it didn’t occur to me that this cure could be what was killing me and primarily making me appear and feel so lost and crazy. I do not remember ever being asked, “how much do you drink?”

One day I heard a voice in my head say “ things will change if you get honest”.  At that time I didn’t know what that meant much less how to do it. Then years later I got a message to begin to “pray without ceasing.” I began to pray with a serious devotion and two years later, I was introduced to recovery support for my alcoholism and began as well to use many alternative integrative therapies for my healing. Primary in those beginning years were weekly Rolphing sessions and Buddhist Meditation and studies with Choygam Trungpa Rinpoche. I did individual talk therapy weekly with some gifted professionals.

Even through my years of drinking, I continued creating art, as it was the only outlet to express the terror and isolation of my life. As my mind and body began to cleanse itself, I began to once again channel Spirit guidance and listen to the Earth. Through gratitude and prayer I found powers greater than myself.

I became a Substance Abuse counselor and received training in-group facilitation. I worked with patients with dual diagnosis for 10 years. During these 10 years I found that having patients journal and draw their hopes, dreams and stories was often a very effective tool in their recovery and that experimental expressive arts experiences would uncover traumatic family histories. For most individuals, these were more directly effective than talk therapy.

I found myself more and more drawn to helping my clients with prayer, meditation, the expressive arts, ritual and beauty. My own spiritual practice was turning towards a deep connection with the natural world, through creating earth art installations, ritual, dreams and intentional prayer. This work brought me to what I now call  “the flow”- meaning the deep understanding and trust of the connection of all beings of this and the spirit world.

Through a sustained commitment to forgiveness, and by realizing how much I learned from my own dysfunction, I reconnected with my family. I stopped blaming.

Through the encouragement of my Therapist at the time, I began to paint my honest feelings. I learned how to talk gently to my body and listen to what my body wanted to do, how it wanted to move, what it had to say. This was the genesis of In-tuit Movement.

By listening to my body I then was able to allow, for example, my legs to paint. As I painted with my right leg and foot, I realized that the limp and a twisted foot I always had were sympathetic body patterns that echoed my fathers’ polio ailments. Unconscious physical distortions created in an effort to receive his love. My whole body was filled with stories, the truth of who I was!

This process changed my life. This letting go was a tremendous relief physically and emotionally. I realized on a very deep level that I was ok, because I was willing to go to any length to become more whole.


In 1991, I made a decision not to work as an employee within the confines of any “institution” again. At this point I was ready to offer workshops to individuals who were seriously motivated. People who wanted their own healing. Those who were willing to transform themselves and the world they live in.  I began to offer my own expressive arts workshops. I was a guide, and did not use the term healer, because I truly assist people healing themselves.

My own personal recovery continues by committing to daily Spiritual Practices, study, creating and be sacred art. As always, I delight in the process of these experiences and know I am blessed!