along the way
abbi ruppert

September 6 - October 19, 2024
Opening Reception September 6, 5-8pm

Walking along the river in a Missouri state park with a good friend, I pluck six mementos from the riverbed.

Exploring the wooded backyard on a retreat with my colleagues in Eastern Kentucky, I find an oddly isolated cow bone.

Camping in a West Virginia gorge, I stumble across a sturdy segment of iron that is the missing piece to a work I’ve been struggling to resolve for weeks.

Replacing damaged siding and doing home renovations with my sister in Illinois, I keep the broken pieces and think about how we’ve worked hard to make this a nice gathering place for our family.

Life doesn’t stop long enough to make sense of it all. My work combines an ever-present reflection of the home I grew up in and how that home shaped me, for better or worse, with a record of fleeting moments from life as it is now.

An old relic says a lot about the person who left it behind, but perhaps even more about the person who curiously picks it up years later. Through combining and manipulating found objects, I try to make sense of my personal history and the days that come and go in a life that never seems to slow down.

Along the way is a record of passing time. Artifacts altered and combined to make sense of where and who I’ve been, to remember the people who love me, the people who have hurt me, and the people who have done both, to memorialize a particularly lovely day, as proof that more will come.

Thank you for celebrating life along the way with me.

About the Artist

Abbi Ruppert is a sculptor, printmaker, installation artist, and educator. Her work comes from a personal investigation of developmental trauma, rural poverty, and delicate family ties.

Abbi earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Sculpture from Southern Illinois University Edwardsville in 2021, and a Master of Arts from West Virginia University in 2022. Abbi now lives and works in Owensboro, Kentucky, where she works as full-time art instructor & program coordinator to grow the Associate in Fine Arts-Visual Art Program at Owensboro Community & Technical College since August 2023.

https://www.abbiruppert.com/
@abbiruppert

Events & exhibitions at the Foundry Art Centre are free and open to the public. For more information, please email Jessica Mannisi, Director of Art & Exhibitions, at jmannisi@foundryartcentre.org