The first thing folks ask me when they meet me is how did you end up doing what you do. You are an artist, committed environmental activist, and a long-time philanthropist, so how did this come about?
I tell them that until about ten years ago, I kept those parts of my life completely separately until my friend and co-author, Jan Phillips, said she didn’t understand why the very best parts of me were not integrated for maximum impact in the world.
I thought about it, and she was right. In fact, some 40 years earlier I had been told by my mentor that one day thousands of people, if not hundreds of thousands of people would see my art and know my environmental activism, and I would be a voice for those people who had no voice. It turned out, she was right.
I found a way to incorporate my art and activism by creating a large body of work entitled, Conscious Conversations of Consequence Inspired by an Artist
weaves a thread through the entire body of work that looks at global Government’s overreach, economic incentives (too big to fail), putting profits before people and the planet, and using Mother Earth and all its inhabitants as a resource to be productized.
Ruth Westreich