Ruth Thomson-Edmond works across sculpture, installation, painting and drawing. Whether she is creating monumental sculptures out of little squares of corrugated cardboard, hot-glued together, or using strips of printed washi tape to create the illusion of wallpaper, her embrace of domestic materials gives a nod to familiar, even child-like arts and crafts. For Thomas-Edmond the process of creation and the length of gestation of an artwork, is as important as the finished object. Taking the time to create art, especially slow art, is a rebellion against a face-paced, STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) focused world.

Thomas-Edmond utilises the intricacies of tiny detail produced en masse, to create a textured whole. In this series of paintings, she uses a very small brush to explore the paper, the repetition of strokes marking the passage of time. Her work is not about efficiency. In these paintings she is taking a feminist stand, claiming ownership of her own time. The little blobs and dashes map internal and external landscapes and experiences, seen and later remembered. They hang like complex thought bubbles, shadows, glimpses or fragments. An experience becomes a memory, which becomes a painting, presenting an authentic understanding while also abstracting it three times over.

Ruth Thomas-Edmond was born in Wellington in 1977. She studied at the University of Auckland, Elam School of Fine Arts completing a Master of Fine Arts in 2005. She has taught at Elam, the Manukau School of Visual Arts and Massey University Wellington. Thomas-Edmond has exhibited in public galleries including City Gallery Wellington, Dowse Art Museum, Waikato Museum and Te Tūhi Centre for the Arts in Auckland. She regularly exhibits at private dealer galleries in Auckland and Wellington.