Meet Roz Ritter | Artist

We had the good fortune of connecting with Roz Ritter and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Roz, we’d love to hear about how you approach risk and risk-taking
Major decisions in my life happened because I took risks. I left my husband and my comfortable lifestyle in Los Angeles when I was 27 and had three children under the age of 6 and we eventually moved “back to the land” and into a tipi in the Santa Cruz Mountains. When my children were grown I moved to Maui and when my father died I moved back to Los Angeles, went back to school at 60 to study art at Santa Monica college and at age 65 I moved once again to Berkeley, where I currently live, to pursue a fiber art career. Each time I moved I re-invented my self.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I am a fiber artist and visual storyteller, piecing together personal stories through hand embroidery. I explore family relationships, the arc of generations and mechanisms of change through an intimate lens, challenging social mores, societal expectations and class structures.

I was born in Brooklyn, N.Y. on January 25th, 1942, the first born to upwardly mobile parents, who were children of Eastern European immigrants. I was raised to be a wife and mother. In the summer of 1962 I fulfilled their goal for me and became the perfect “fifties” wife. By the time the cultural revolution of the “sixties” had firmly taken root, I was the bewildered mother of three young sons.

It was 1969, America had landed a man on the Moon, and there was Woodstock, hippies, free love, Vietnam, civil rights, women’s rights and mind-altering drugs. I began asking myself, “Is this all there is?”

Before long with my boys tucked amid boxes of books, toys and Twinkie snack cakes, while “yellow submarine” blared from the radio, I backed out the driveway of my suburban Los Angeles home and fled to Northern California to live in a Tipi. I left behind my husband, financial security and the only lifestyle I had ever known. This was the defining moment of my life.

Fast forward to the late nineties. I am living once again in Los Angeles and working full time at Burke Williams Spa. A voice in my head kept repeating….all I want to do is make art, all I want to do is make art. Eventually I decided to listen to that voice. I enrolled in a drawing class at Santa Monica College while working part time. On the first day of my drawing class, my teacher Anne Marie Karlsen said, “if you think you are in a traditional drawing class you are in the wrong place”. I knew then I listening to “that voice” was the right thing to do.

At the end of that semester I was invited into SMC’s year long art mentor program with Anne Marie as my mentor, along with 19 other chosen artists. It was an exceptional program that still exists today, and so began my journey as an artist. By the end of the program I knew I wanted to embroider my father’s life on one of his suits and I have been using hand embroidery, as my artist expression. In 2006 after moving to Berkeley, I joined Carole Beadle’s Fiber Sculpture class at College of Marin in Kentfield ,Caifornia and have been working as a fiber artist ever since.

Fiber art does not have a formula. Every piece I make I need to figure out how to get my concept into a final piece of art. Before I make that first stitch. I do the research, then I gather my materials and make samples from my ideas. I use photos and drawings for many of my pieces which requires different transfer techniques onto the fabric. Figuring out each process is a mental exercise but when I get the actual embroidery I begin a more meditative state. Kinda the “cream in the coffee. While I am embroidering I multitask and listen to books on tape. I love what I do!

I draw inspiration from my paternal great grandmother Rose, who was a seamstress in the summer palace of Franz Joseph during the Ottoman Empire, and my father, Lew, who was a haberdasher to the stars in Beverly Hills. The Bayeaux Tapestry, as well as historical American samplers.

I call my generation The Swing Generation”. We are not baby boomers, nor do we remember World War II. Rather we swing between the two on a wild ride through changing times.. I don’t want us to be forgotten.

Currently I am working on creating a book of my artwork as well as researching a new body of work.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
I am blessed to live in one of the best places in America for culture-Art, Food, shopping etc. all surrounded by natural beauty and outdoor activity. It is a privilege to live here.

EAT/DRINK
Good Luck Dim Sum- Clement St, Inner Richmond District, San Francisco
Dalida- Mediterranean- Presido, San Francisco
Piccino-Italian-DogPatch district, San Francisco
Pacific Cafe, Outer Richmond, San Francisco
Korean Superette, Solano Ave, Berkeley
Inn Kensington-Breakfast-Kenisington
Kerala-Sushi-Berkeley
Catahoula-coffee-Richmond
Donato-Italian-Ashby Ave, Berkeley
El Mono-Peruvian-El Cerrito,
El Molino Central-Mesican-Sonoma

ViSIT:
MOMA, San Francisco
DeYoung Museum, San Francisco
Palace of Fine Arts
Minnesota Street P, San Francisco
Minnesota Street Project, Art Galleries, DogPatch District, San Francisco
Museum of Craft & Design
Rosie the Riveter Museum, Richmond
Valencia St. Mission District San Francisco
Tilden Park-hike/bike-Berkeley Hills
Marina Bay Park-walking-Richmond

SHOP:
Bi-Rite Market, San Francisco
Ferry Building-San Francisco
Cut Loose Factory Store-San Francisco
Kamei Restaurant Supply on Clement St, San Francisco
Monterey Market, Berkeley
Tokyo Fish, Berkeley

HANG OUT:
Pt Reyes Station
Napa- Sonoma

BEST HAIRCUT:
Best Haircut-Reyes Salon/Todd, San Francisco

BEST BAGELS,
Ethel’s Delicatessen, Petaluma

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
Anne Marie Karlsen-Art Teacher, Santa Monica College, Santa Monica, CA Carole Beadle- Art Teacher, College of Marin, Kentfield, CA
Facets, Untitled-Art Critique groups
My family

Website: www.rozritter.com

Instagram: @rozritterartist

Facebook: rozritterartist

Image Credits
Dana Davis Photographer