Today we’d like to introduce you to Brandon Ruiter.
Brandon, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I learned to draw because I was a wildly obnoxious student who couldn’t focus in school. I was a class clown and needed to be the center of attention, so doodling characters in the margins of all my pages concentrated my energy and unintentionally gave me years of drawing practice.
Imagination and storytelling have always been my central drive, that, combined with my love of attention and lack of any athletic ability, I inevitably began acting in middle-school and eventually enrolled in the Theatre program at Hope College in Holland, MI. Over time, however, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to pursue acting professionally. I wanted to tell comic book stories about superheroes, monsters and mythology but I had the misguided notion that being a professional actor was all Shakespeare, living room dramas and cheesy Broadway musicals. Then my professor and lifelong mentor Michelle Bombe took a group of students to Chicago to see a show at The House Theatre, an up-and-coming company that produced all original works of theatre. The show had spectacle, superheroes, and cinematic on-stage nuclear explosions. This was the type of story I could tell for the rest of my life, and after devising a show at Hope with Nathan Allen, the artistic director of The House Theatre I was hooked and decided to move to Chicago to pursue working with The House Theatre. Before long, I was on stage with the House and I spent several years working in Chicago theatre and pursuing other performance avenues including voice-over, film and television, all the while drawing as a hobby and wishing illustration and art were a larger part of my life.
Eventually my work in Chicago Theatre evolved into opportunities to work on some great tv and film projects and after securing acting representation in Los Angeles, I was more than happy to dodge another Chicago winter and I made the move to California. It was in LA that my passion for cartooning and illustration flourished. Surrounded by the animation industry and adjusting to being an LA actor, I began to take myself seriously as an illustrator. It was not an easy leap and I continue to suffer from imposter syndrome, but I began to draw and paint things that I had been yearning to create for years. It wasn’t long before I was hyphenating my identity, and I’ve been successfully creating as a freelance Actor-Illustrator since.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
My journey has certainly had its rocky patches, but I’ve been blessed with an amazing community and incredible mentors along the way. Leaving my artistic home in Chicago to pursue more film and television in Los Angeles was definitely a difficult adjustment. After a terrifying period of regret and trepidation about my future, it bottlenecked my focus in a wonderful way and forced me to draw and create in a way I had never needed to in Chicago.
Doodled Chaos: The Art of Brandon Ruiter – what should we know? What do you do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
My art is rooted in imagination, whimsy and storytelling. I believe one of the best ways to inspire unity and community is through storytelling, so I like everything I create to form some sort of narrative. My experience as an actor influences my visual art in this way and vice versa. In addition to character design and sequential art, a favorite branch of my visual art is my paintings. I scavenge and thrift for discarded prints and paintings or old record covers and repurpose their impact by painting fantastical creatures directly on top of them, creating a completely new narrative. If nothing else, I want to make people laugh. Watching a complete stranger walk by and chuckle when they see my work is the highest form of praise for me.
What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
There’s no feeling like knowing my art is bringing joy to its owners. Many of my paintings are sold out of Mindfulness in Highland Park. A few years ago, one of the first paintings I had ever made was sold and I had no way of knowing who its new owner was and admittedly felt some loss from its departure. Months later, out of the blue I received an email with a photo of my silly narwhal painting hanging above their couch and thanking me for the piece and telling me how much joy it had brought their family. I walked with a little more pep in my step that day.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.BrandonRuiter.com
- Email: DoodldedChaos@gmail.com
- Instagram: @BrandonRuiter
- Facebook: @ActorIllustratorBrandonRuiter
- Other: https://www.etsy.com/shop/DoodledChaos
Image Credit:
Nick McCenna
Suggest a story: VoyageLA is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
