Lizzie Rutberg is an artist, barista, organizer, and trans woman living on stolen Massachusetts and Pawtucket land in so-called Somerville, MA. She draws inspiration from 20th century social realist artists who celebrated the struggle against capitalism and white supremacy, as well as alternative cartoonists such as Lynda Barry and Julie Doucet. She primarily works in linocut, which allows her to offer handmade yet mass-produced artwork at an affordable price point, and in gouache. With her work, she searches for pockets of a better world hidden inside the world we live in today.
Artist statement
To me, light is a sculpture made of time. I watch the sunset or the streetlight bounce off the geometry of a triple-decker and it moves me. This exact pattern of light may never appear again. When I paint or carve my cityscapes, I am trying to live inside of the color and light of a moment which has long since slipped away. I wish my friends and I could live forever bathing in orange light, safe from rent hikes and cops and fascism and climate apocalypse. Of course, we can’t. But my cityscapes represent that longing.
Instagram: @lizzie_cartoons
Personal website
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