Jarie Saad Ruddy is a metro Detroit based artist who uses mixed media photo collage as a form of storytelling. Her personal, intentional work reflects her interests in family lore, art history, and religious imagery. Her work has been featured in several recent shows including The Scarab Club, BasBlue, and The Michigan Fine Arts Competition. In 2026 she was chosen to be part of the Featured Artist Program at the Detroit Artists Market, culminating in her solo exhibit, “Between Memory and Migration.” An art educator for over forty years, she has passed on her belief in the transformative power of art to generations of students.
My work begins with a photo to create a visual narrative of my family, before and after their immigration to America. It’s as though each photo holds a story waiting to be revealed about the life someone lived, or might have lived. Informed by the places they left, Lebanon and Sicily, and the homes they made in Detroit, each piece is an homage to the rich diaspora I am part of. Materials, images, historical art references, and iconography are layered to construct imagined possibilities and scenarios—exploring connections between memory, migration, and material culture from the Mediterranean to Michigan.
Miracle on Belvidere Street
Sacraments and Superstitions
Just Before My Father Went AWOL to Hear Django Reinhardt in Algeria
Le Bellezze
Botticelli’s Gabriel Appears to My Mother on Ironing day