Looking Out: Nell Ruby at Berry College

On March 2nd, my long term college mentor and professor, Nell Ruby, gave an artist talk at Berry College to kick off the early opening of her exhibition in their Moon Gallery. I was beyond thrilled to be able attend since it was a two hour drive from Agnes Scott College. Luckily Nell is loved and respected by the staff at Agnes, so there was a plethora of people I could ask for rides to Berry. From IT to library staff, the Agnes Scott community filled the seats in the auditorium alongside her friends and family.

I met Nell Ruby in the spring of my freshman year. She was teaching Digital Processes, a course that is the foundation for most of my technical abilities today, and her personality was infectious. I knew of Nell Ruby before we even met. That’s how things are at Agnes Scott. She was the eccentric studio art teacher who was the type to make the syllabus in class and build the curriculum around a Ted Talk that recently shifted her perspective. We clicked instantly, her providing levity to my general anxieties by pointing out the small beauties around us and me providing the structure by finding her lost items and remining her of deadlines. Nell Ruby has been my biggest supporter since day one. The kind of professor to email internship opportunities she thinks I would suite, come to my events and workshops, and even offer the extra room in her home to me over the summer so that I would be able to work for the next years tuition without spending hundreds to thousands on housing. She has shown up for me in every way imaginable since I met her four years ago, so it felt great to be able to show up for her.

Her presentation, ironically after writing about how we met, was held back by technical a few difficulties. However, the clean and simple structure of the talk reminded me of how we met. She showed pictures she had taken of things that she was inspired by and then the work those patterns turned into, just as she did four years before. I even managed to be one of the photos she included in the presentation. She spoke softly and with endearment of the things she was presenting, scattering in occasional jokes, and gently brought the audience into the world she was observing. But the most impactful part was that she wasn’t building a mystical perfect world for us to escape into. Nell was picturing and describing dilapidated houses, advertisements, shadows cast by the trees on campus. She was providing refuge in a world we already knew. This transitioned seamlessly into my exploration of the mixed media exhibition. She had perfectly encapsulated the tone of the intimate gallery in her presentation. It was playful, new forms of mundane life, and quietly appreciated.

The exhibition will be open in the Moon Gallery at Berry College until April 9th, and I cannot advocate enough how much the drive is worth it.