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A former Foxboro resident who lives in Nashville is bringing her passion for empowering art to the local area by inviting women to paint portraits of themselves in the buff.
Samantha Zaruba, 33, is a mixed media artist and art empowerment teacher interested in how self-constructed narratives and media consumption make an impact on people.
Her latest series of nude figures is a revival of work she started while studying art at UMass Amherst and has lead to the creation of Paint Your Noodz, a personalized paint-and-sip art experience that allows participants to put their own curves on canvas.
Zaruba’s work has been featured in publications, including Out Voices Nashville, “Best Visual Artist,” Nashville Scene’s Best of Nashville, NPR’s Today in Nashville, in galleries, including Cëcret, COOP, Turnip Green and on album covers for Ron Gallo and Naked Giants.
Art became a passion for Zaruba when she was still just a student.
“Ms .Cahan at Foxboro High School was great. The art teacher that I was the closest with growing up was Barbara McCaulife. I took private lessons with Barbara in her Foxboro home starting at age 14 during a dark period when I was struggling. Art lessons with Barbara probably saved my life,” Zaruba said.
“One of the most valuable things she taught me that I still think about today is that ‘you can always get something back.’ What that means while painting is to go for it. Artists can get so paralyzed by fear of ‘messing something up’ that it’s a real creativity killer. Try the thing, don’t be scared to ruin it because if you did it once, you can do it again,” Zaruba said.
Zaruba likes art because it provides a sense of peace it delivers to her mind and body when she is creating.
“I love utilizing art to grapple with big concepts such as identity, media, and technology,” she said.
While Zaruba’s art may be too risqué for some, she is committed to using her work to help others.
In 2017, Zaruba started PowArt, a series of pro-bono art empowerment workshops held at various nonprofits and underserved schools and community centers around Nashville with the mission to provide art therapy and an opportunity for people to know themselves as artists.
The idea for Paint Your Noodz was born out of her own love for painting figures and her passion for empowering others by giving them an appreciation for their unique bodies.
Zaruba said she learned to paint nude figures in college at UMass Amherst and refined her skill when she started her most recent series in the spring of 2020.
Participants in her Paint Your Noodz class do not have to draw themselves. Zaruba does all the drawing of each person’s reference photo on the canvas ahead of time, marking out shading so it’s as close to a paint by numbers as possible.
She leads people in bringing their body to life with acrylic paint and offers one-on-one assistance, demonstrating directly on students’ canvas so that everyone leaves with a piece of art they can be proud of.
“I started painting nude figures in college at a time when I felt really disconnected from myself. I revisited nude painting in early 2020 when this feeling reached an apex for me as it did for many others during the pandemic. In May 2020, when I picked back up the paintbrush, I had just turned 30 in lockdown and had swiftly gained almost 20 pounds in two months and did not feel at home in my body. With the raging pandemic, I felt untethered and out of control,” Zaruba said.
She said painting bodies, her own and others, has been healing.
“It’s something I wanted to give to others. Coming up with the concept of this art class in the spring of 2022 was one of those light bulb moments. A tingle in the back of my brain that felt like every single thing I had done so far in my various careers had led to the creation of this idea,” she said.
Zaruba recently helped victims of sexual assault to regain confidence through her class in Nashville.
In honor of Sexual Assault Awareness Month in April and as part of her art exhibition for the Tennessee Re-Pair Triennial, she wanted to provide survivors of sexual assault and domestic violence with an opportunity to reclaim their bodies as their own by offering a sliding scale pay-what-you-can Paint Your Noodz class.
“I love empowering others and utilizing my platform to champion causes I care about. I believe my reason for being on this planet is to help unleash people’s greatness and it’s always an honor to be part of someone’s healing journey,” she said.
Zaruba hopes to start offering Paint Your Noodz and her couple’s class Paint Your Partner when she visits family in the Foxboro area three to four times per year moving forward.
Pamela Morgan, of Foxboro, and the owner of The Craft Bar in North Attleboro agreed, to host Zaruba’s Paint Your Noodz class on Thursday, Aug. 31 at 6:30 p.m..
“I think her work is beautiful. She is very talented and I love her message. I respect any person that is involved in empowering other women,” said Morgan.
“Right away, I thought this would be a great class. I believe we both strive to foster peoples’ connections with each other and themselves while empowering them to feel good about themselves in a safe space,” Morgan said.
Zaruba said her message to artists of any age is to take action.
“Your perspective and what you have to share with the world is valuable. Don’t wait until you have something ‘perfect.’ Just go for it. Robots will not replace us. There will always be a crucial need for human-created art,” she said.
Register for Paint Your Noodz class at The Craft Bar and find information on Zaruba’s upcoming events, visit her website at samanthazaruba.com.
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