During lockdown, Ruth began drawing a self-portrait every day. She wasn’t sure how long it would last — or whether she’d improve — but it became a quiet part of the daily rhythm.
Over five years, she created nearly 1,500 portraits. Most were quick. Some were hesitant. Others felt more assured. She used pencil, chalk, ink, even oils — depending on time, mood, or energy.
Recently, we gathered over a thousand of them into a short film — just a minute and a half long. It sounds simple, but it took the best part of a day just to photograph a 1000 of them.
Each image was scanned, dated, and arranged in sequence. We adjusted timing, checked for flicker, and tried to find a rhythm that would let the changes speak for themselves —
It isn’t a showcase or a retrospective. Just a way to see, in one sweep, how time and repetition shape the work.
You can stop the video at any point to see the individual drawing