In 2025, youthful visions of self-fulfilling work are blurred by family members, friends and internet celebrities telling you what to do and who to be. While moments of peace and self reflection are few and far between, when the pieces finally click together in times of repose, the path to the future gleams in the eyes of those who dare to dream. For 23-year-old University of Oregon student Liv Ruth, it took a gap year to reconnect with her creative roots and uncover her love for the hidden art of tufting.
Ruth, who grew up in Pennsylvania, made the journey out west haunted by ghosts of conformity dressed in LuluLemon. While her father was a prominent multimedia artist with a gallery in the basement of her childhood home, Ruth opted toward traditional Pennsylvania past-times like lacrosse.
“I literally wrote my college essay on lacrosse and how it was my entire identity. I toured University of Oregon to play D(ivision) I lacrosse and that was my life,” Ruth said. “Once I decided not to go down that path, I was really lost.”
The loss of her sport weighed on her, but as a young college student immersed in the breakneck pace of American culture, she felt the pressure to make a decision. Following a period of uncertainty as she pursued education and occupied her free time with sorority life, she found her way back to art.
“I didn’t really get into art until I started going here. Honestly, I was really struggling in my regular classes, like education classes,” Ruth said. “I’ve always liked art, so I started doing really well in my art classes and just kind of went with it.”
The loss of her support system when she switched into art classes was a blow which led to an impromptu gap year. But, a step back to reassess can lead to a clear and streamlined path forward, and for Ruth, the year spent at home gave her time to realize her distaste for the hustle of the East Coast.
“Being back home has definitely made me appreciate living here a lot; it’s just so much more vibrant. People are so much more kind, and have a slower way of living,” Ruth said. “I really try to incorporate that into my work. I feel like now it’s part of my life too, and I just love the change of pace.”
For Ruth, her passion for the slow and labor intensive process of tufting was inspired by watching a video her dad sent her of a rug being made.
“He randomly sent me a rug tufting video one day and I thought, ‘I’m just going to do it,’” Ruth said. “I bought all the equipment and spent the year learning while I was working.” As she continued building, she began to increase the complexity of her designs and found her distinct creative voice.
Her first rug, a depiction of the Peanuts character Snoopy embracing Woodstock, proved to be the first in a line of wholesome motifs. For Ruth, a multimedia artist, Peanuts-inspired designs have been a recurring preference across mediums. The show, a favorite of her mother’s, has occupied a special space in her mind’s eye since she was a child.
“My mom wore this little Lucy pendant, and I’ve just always been staring at that,” Ruth said. “I mean, how many times do you look at your mom growing up, so when I think of my mom’s face, I think of the pendant.”
Such heartfelt presence can be felt across the breadth of her portfolio, due to her imagery and color palette. Scrolling through her instagram it’s hard not to be engrossed by the neon colors which evoke thoughts of the Grateful Dead and ‘50s surf rock culture.
The colors she opts toward are beautifully psychedelic, but Ruth admitted her color palette has much room for improvement. “I’m really scared of using black, gray, brown and any neutral colors,” she said.
With Ruth feeling more invigorated than ever to continue pushing the limits of her artistic capabilities, largely in part to her new community on campus and within the greater tufting community, the sky’s the limit.
