Kia ora! My name is Rudo and I’ve been making art since I was a wee babe. All kinds of art. It comes from my heart, and allows me to tell a wonderful story through colour, symbolism, and lines. Held within this website is a wee glimpse of the work that goes onto paper, canvas, and sketchbooks…there’s so much more I forget to document because I’m just in the flow.
I’ve been training and honing my skills through art classes most of my life, I have really awesome parents who always set me up for success. If you want to know how I did something or you want a piece for yourself, feel free to ask. I just ask that you don’t use my art without reaching out first, I am a really collaborative woman and would embrace the experience of knowing if something I’ve made moves you.
7 Questions and 7 Answers (things I’ve actually been asked):
- Where are you from? I’m from Lexington, Kentucky…I grew up there and the hills, horse farms, windy roads and creeks are in my heart. Originally created and burst forth in Harare Zimbabwe, I carry my name and spirit of community as tokens of this aspect. I went to university at Purchase College, New York…that’s usually how I run down my origins!
- What are your pronouns? I go by she/her.
- Are you gay? I’m bisexual.
- What do you do? For a living I work in the heath insurance industry, investigating the patient’s response to how their funded surgeries went. I then set up the doctors with access to their results. I think health insurance gets a pretty bad rap, especially my American friends will agree there. But I’m incredibly impressed with the health system in New Zealand and I”m proud to be part of an integral playing in the medical ecosystem here. And I love that the organisation is a friendly society, we don’t put profits over people. All that said I also “do” a lot of other things. I volunteer, I mother, I friend, I paint, I garden, I podcast, I teach, and I hold space.
- What kind of art do you make? My favourite styles of art movements that I feel I’m in the same family to are abstract expressionist, surrealism, folk art, spiritual/intuitive.
- Are you into reiki? I don’t know to be frank. Sometimes I’m 100% into the idea and then other times I feel less trustful of energy workers and its outcomes…life has a way of just going on irregardless of my opinion and I’m dreading if someone reads this and becomes offended. Why did I write this? But I am in a weird place with this. Ask me in a year.
- Have you exhibited? Usually people ask me this as if I need to prove my legitimacy as an artist. I have a finger for you haters, guess which one it is? Can’t an artist just be making art? Or do you need a list of galleries I’m being shown in for you to see value in what I do? But yeah, I’ve exhibited.