To kick off a new series on artists in the GA community, Ms. Ritz – an Upper School art teacher – shares about herself and her recent pieces: “Home” and “Heart/Home.”
Ms. Ritz has taught sculpture at GA for ten and a half years but has been teaching art for over thirty years. She has loved art ever since she was young, saying “making things was like my best friend.” She felt that since she was a quiet child, art was the only place she could express who she was and communicate about herself “when words wouldn’t always come.” Teaching allows her to communicate through her work while also helping students learn to express themselves through their work.
As a mother of four sons, Ms. Ritz is constantly surrounded by the ideas of home, family, emotions, and growth, which she bases much of her work on. According to Ms. Ritz, the piece “Home” was created last year when she became “an empty nester”. Since her children had all moved out of her house and into the real world, her home was “quiet for the first time in 25 years.” Creating this piece allowed Ms. Ritz to express the emotions she was feeling during this time. She describes the branches breaking through the house in her work as “an emblem of the physical home that could no longer contain [her children’s] growth.” The cherries dangling from the top branches are “symbols of beauty, love, and a new start.” The bruised cherries on the ground, however, are “emblems of loss, moments of marks missed in our lives.” By basing her pieces on her own life experiences, Ms. Ritz can explore topics that are deeply personal to herself and her life experiences.
Ms. Ritz made “Heart/Home” when the Covid-19 pandemic first hit, and was inspired by the emotions she felt during that time. She describes the feelings of disorientation, fear, and uncertainty as “the uprooting of [her] heart.” The sudden shift in her life not only impacted her, but also affected her sons who moved back home from different places all over the country. The “uprooting” she mentions applies to her heart’s feeling and the physical “uprooting” that her sons experienced. While she was overwhelmed with the sudden change, the love for her sons grew, since they were back together. The conflicting feelings of uncertainty and love both play a part in her meaning of this piece. The title “Heart/Home” comes from Ms. Ritz’s personal belief that home and heart are interchangeable. To her, home is wherever love is.
The materials that Ms. Ritz uses plays a part in the meaning of her pieces. One of the first things viewers notice are the two heart shaped structures. The two hearts are similar in form, but when viewers look closer, they can see that the two hearts differ in materials and texture. She explains, “I like to use a lot of different things and then unify them with color.” Ms. Ritz uses many different textures to “evoke different kinds of feelings,” but brings the pieces together with a deep red color.
While both “Home” and “Heart/Home” have similar elements, Ms. Ritz doesn’t consider “Heart/Home” as an extension of her previous piece “Home.” Instead, the pieces are “part of a series of work regarding family, love, growth, and the transitory nature of growing a family over time.” She picks symbols that have a universal meaning and explores them in her personal terms; aiming for the viewers to see the symbols and analyze them in terms of their own life. Though both pieces are not intentionally related, they are tied together through colors, themes, and symbols.
Ms. Ritz hopes that her work “evokes a gut reaction” in viewers. When people first see her work, they may recognize elements that they are familiar with – such as the shape or the color – but then deconstruct the meaning as they notice more details. Though people might not know Ms. Ritz’s personal meaning to her pieces, they are still able to interpret the meaning of the piece according to their own experiences. Be sure to check out Ms. Ritz’s piece ”Heart/Home” in the Arts Center!
