Some of the world’s best artists rely on philosophy as a way to branch out and find new windows into creative processes they may not have thought of before. A lot about art is about expanding the mind. When we expand our minds and broaden our thinking, we can manifest our talents. Multimedia artist and ardent philosopher Leyi (Ruby) Yang credits Nihilism as her motivation to explore new dimensions of art through her work.
Having studied at the School of Art Institute of Chicago, Ruby currently works and lives in San Francisco. After being represented by a prominent gallery, Ruby felt that there was more to her work than just promoting and selling pieces. “It’s hard to explore the depths of life and find that perhaps there are no answers,” explains Ruby. “Either way, it is what motivates me to paint and express myself.”
While this may sound strange in the traditional sense because Nihilism has a negative connotation to it, this philosophy has actually motivated Ruby to explore rather than despair. “I believe that art can help us see things where our gaze ends,” says Ruby. “Our physical sight might be limited, but our imagination is not.” Ruby’s focuses her work on large scale canvases, vibrant colors, and layered abstracts unraveling the essence of human existence.
Ruby is committed to studying emptiness. Captivated by the meaningless, Ruby uses her art as a method to deconstruct and recreate different ideas, assumptions, and meanings. Her work stands out as something beyond Nihilism’s mundane listlessness and perhaps the hope it could potentially represent. “Nihilism does not turn me off in the least,” states Ruby. “If anything, it makes me feel more connected to the realities of life instead of lost in a mirage.”
A distinctive artist in every sense of the world, Ruby looks forward to a future that we can all admit was disrupted by 2020. “No matter how metaphorical or symbolic we get in explaining what we are going through, there will always be a human definition,” states Ruby. “My art is my interpretation of that. It’s my lens into life.”
