My name is Ruth Bagley Arenz. I was born September 10, 1950 in Sumter County, Georgia. My father was of German ancestry and my mother was English/ Scotch- Irish. Sumter county is home to Jimmy Carter, Habitat for Humanity, and where Charles Lindbergh made his first solo flight. I taught school for over thirty years. I majored in English major in college, but ended up teaching reading to disadvantaged children for most of my career. About my art- I have been influenced mainly by the works of Modigliani, Picasso, Chagall and other contemporary outsider artists.I work with acrylics, pastels, mixed media, and collages. I especially enjoy doing portraits and figures. I am currently living in Ellijay, which is a small town in the mountains of North Georgia. ( as a side note, I have terrible vision- I'm blind in one eye and the other one sees 20/40)