Heart and Soul: Angela Hardy and Robert Ruby

by Beth Stewart

(Pictured: Angela Hardy, “Artists in Love”, acrylic with metallic background on two 6-by-8-inch panels.)

Angela Hardy hails from Labrador; Robert Ruby was born in Kitchener. The odds of them ever meeting were slim to begin with. That they met and fell in love, is serendipitous.

The two visual artists now live and work together in St. Thomas, Ontario. It is a relationship forged in happenstance and fired by a passion for art.

Angela Hardy has worked and trained in most mediums, but primarily considers herself an acrylic painter. Her art is firmly rooted in realism with a healthy dollop of impressionism. She has a deep love of colour and light.

While she paints multiple subjects, including birds, blossoms, landscapes, and skyscapes, she always circles back to figurative and portrait work. Overall, her subjects embrace beauty, love, and strength.

(Pictured: Angela Hardy, “The Keeper”, grease pencil, acrylic paint, silver and gold leaf on a 10-inch round panel with a 14-inch refinished wood octagon frame.)

Over the last few years, Hardy has leaned hard into her passion for art history and the symbolism and decorative elements of the Medieval, Renaissance and Art Nouveau periods.

The desire to draw and paint has always been a part of Hardy’s life. It was first nurtured by her mother, and then she was fortunate enough to attend West Viking College in Newfoundland and the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design in Nova Scotia.

A little over 10 years ago, Angela Hardy moved to Ontario.

Robert Ruby graduated from the Fine Art Environmental program at Fanshawe College. He, too, has worked in a variety of mediums, but has always gravitated towards assemblage, art that brings together disparate elements – often everyday objects, scavenged or bought – to form a new whole.

The act of assemblage can be seen as a rebellion against art in the traditional sense, and this, says Ruby, makes “intent and narrative” a crucial element of the medium.

Ruby embraces Kurt Schwitters’ philosophy that there is “no reason why used tram tickets, bits of driftwood, buttons and old junk from attics and rubbish heaps should not serve well as materials for paintings.”

It is appropriate that much of his work with its congregation of materials resembles altar pieces, reliquaries or shrines, as he too seeks to protect and respectfully display objects and ephemera.

Ruby is an acquired brain injury (ABI) survivor, which impacts his life and art. There was a long period of time, fourteen years to be exact, during which he attempted to deal with it on his own. He finally sought help.

It was not long after this that he met Angela Hardy, who was giving a talk on art in Port Dover.

He says, “Because of her, on October 5th, 2015, my world changed.”

She says, “Life took a turn I could have never dreamed.”

They quickly discovered how their interests aligned, but for nearly a year, they stayed in the friend-only zone.

“We both knew that we belonged together. We did then, and we still do,” admits Ruby. His assemblage, “Help is on its Way,” is a tribute to Hardy.

(Pictured: Robert Ruby, “Help is on its Way”, mixed media, 42 by 20 by 9 inches, 2022. This piece is part of a body of work that speaks to the challenges, confusion and frustration that often surround an Acquired Brain Injury.)

Angela Hardy and Robert Ruby’s home is also their workspace, so the two are almost constantly together. Both agree they wouldn’t have it any other way.

Ruby says, “Our physical space, the studio, tells a story. What’s in it? Paint palettes and drippings, brushes, tea cups, gears, tools, clocks, canvases, grease pencils, parchment paper, books, easels, paintings and assemblages. It’s a mirror in which I see my dear one, Angela Elizabeth Marie, every day.”

Hardy adds, “There’s never a shortage of romantic gestures or discussions on life and love. We have both lived full lives previous to ‘us’ and that helps drive us to not want to waste the time we have together.”

Since meeting, the two have enjoyed successes and met challenges.

In 2018, one of Hardy’s pieces was accepted into the Salon de la Société Nationale des Beaux Arts (SNBA), Carrousel du Louvre à Paris. In 2019, she was awarded a silver medal for painting at the Arts Sciences Lettres, Paris. Then, life took a couple of unexpected detours.

(Angela Hardy’s acrylic on canvas 30 by 40 inch “Venus Within” was shown at the SNBA, Salon de la Société Nationale des Beaux Arts, Carousel de Louvre in 2018.)

The first was the pandemic. The uncertainty made it hard for Hardy to dive back into the body of work – the “Indestructible Women” series – she had begun before her time in France.

Then, in 2021, her mother, Hardy’s guiding force, became ill with Alzheimer’s. Hardy returned to Labrador, where she stayed for eleven months caring for her mother while battling the Newfoundland healthcare system for her mother’s right to stay in Labrador.

Says Hardy, “Watching my mother decline changed how I see the world.” It drove home the importance of living fully. She concluded, “Art isn’t just for when we have time or feel the inspiration, it is a powerful tool to help us in difficult times … when we create for ourselves, we also serve others by giving their minds, imaginations, and emotions a place to linger.”

Her mother passed away in December 2022. Hardy says, “Without my partner, my Robert, his support and love, I don’t think I would have made it through it at all or find my way during and after.”

(Pictured: Angela Hardy, “Sanctuary of Safe and Sound” (part of the ongoing “Indestructible Women” series), acrylic on canvas, 48 by 48 inches.)

In 2023, Ruby had a 22-piece solo show at the St. Thomas-Elgin Public Art Centre (STEPAC). “The Mechanics of Meaning” explored his experience navigating life with an ABI. Much of the work was assemblage art, and the melding of old and new materials in this project can be seen as a metaphor for Ruby’s old self meeting and melding with his new self.

(Pictured: Robert Ruby, “Three Out Of Five Ain’t Bad”, mixed media, 12 by 24 by 10 inches, 2023.)

Since then, Ruby has been working on pieces that address the issue of aging, with his most recent piece titled “Assisted Living no. 01”. In addition, he has been working on a series about society’s treatment of women. One of the finished pieces in this series is “White Picket Fence,” which is fashioned after Margaret Atwood’s Handmaids.

Four of his assemblages are currently on display at Frankingstyle Art Gallery on Talbot Street in St Thomas.

(Robert Ruby’s “Declaration No 01” is subtitled “Before Every Vitruvian Man There’s a Vitruvian Woman”.)

In their time together, Angela Hardy and Robert Ruby have never run short of creativity. Says Hardy, “If anything, this collaboration of love and creativity keeps growing. Our day-to-day revolves around the art we make.”

London photographer Paul Lambert says, “Angela and Robert are a testament to the beauty of connection. Angela and Robert remind us that being ‘artists in love’ isn’t just about sharing a creative life — it’s about living as co-creators of something bigger than themselves.”

(Pictured: Angela Hardy and Robert Ruby. Photograph by Robert Ruby.)

For more information on Angela Hardy and Robert Ruby, visit:

http://www.angelahardyfineart.com/

http://www.facebook.com/angelahardyfineart

Instagram: @ang2art

http://www.robertrubyfineart.com

By Beth Stewart

Web: https://bethstewart.ca/