Ruby Ruso

I have a wonderful momento. It is one of my very first pieces of work. I have a stick figure that I drew when I was about five years old. My mother made a yarn punch pillow with my design on it and that pillow now sits in my daughter's room today. For about 30 years, my sticks never made it past scrap paper doodles until...
One day I was at work, and I was going through a very difficult time having lost a sweet love. I had this strong desire to journal, but every time I tried to write my feelings out, something became blocked and I could never express them fully. I had remembered a website where this artist drew his "doodles" digitally. His medium was very inspiring to me as I had never thought of my little stick figures as anything more than scrap paper doodles. But since they had always come easy to me I figured that I should try to draw them out on the computer too. I opened a simple paint program and started drawing. Within an hour, "Swing Low" was created. This simple picture expressed everthing that I was feeling quite perfectly, so I decided to continue journaling my stick figures daily.

I named my character Ruby Ruso and I shared my online journal with close friends and family. They watched as Ruby lost love. They even saw her find and loose it a few more times after that. More importantly, they were with Ruby when she found herself and to share in some of the wonderful journeys along the way. With warm encouragement from friends, about a year after Ruby's online debut, she transferred from a private journal entry to a notecard SuperStar and is now what you see online today.

While I took some time off from Ruby to pursue Hooprama, recently Ruby came back into the picture. She is now the spokes-stick for Hooprama & Hooping for Hope aka Hoop Ruby! She is now on t-shirts, magnets and more and will be popping up more frequently as time allows. I am thrilled to have her connected so closely with my passion for hula hooping as I feel she embodies the true spirit and character that I want Hooprama to shine.
From stick to hoop and back, this has been a wonderful journey filled with much love and support. The encouragement that I have received for my little stick figure has been priceless and I cannot begin to properly thank all of those wonderful people who not only helped me get to where I am today, but who continue to inspire me on a daily basis. For that reason, I dedicate this site and my body of work to my daughters, my husband, my dear friends and family.

Sunny Becks-Crumpton aka Ruby Ruso

Sunny is a mother, wife, hula hoop teacher and artist who lives with her husband (Inspector Dave) and their three daughters (Fiona, Madeline & Henrietta), and their two dogs (Pablo & Turbo) in East Nashville TN. You can contact her directly at sunny (at) rubyruso.com