How Our Art Star Alex Ruiz Found His Way by Helping Others Find Theirs
We’re excited to kick off a new series of interviews with our Art Star of the Month program, honouring exceptional talent across various creative fields.
Through this initiative, we aim to spotlight artists making an impact, offering them a global platform to share their work and connect with a community of creators. The Art Star of the Month program is designed to recognise the incredible diversity and innovation in the arts, providing a space for growth, recognition, and meaningful connections.
For this month’s Art Star interview at the Arts to Hearts Project, we sit down with Alex Ruiz, a self-described visual alchemist and creative coach whose journey has taken him from working on The Simpsons to exploring themes like healing, psychedelia, and transformation through his drawings. Alex shares how years in animation, concept art, and film eventually led him to a more inward path that now guides his creative process and his work helping others reconnect with their imagination.
He talks about his latest series, Delicate Delirium, a collection of 26 goddess-like figures that came to life during profound personal change and exploration. He also opens up about how his retreats and workshops are less about teaching art skills and more about helping people rediscover a part of themselves they may have forgotten. Through this conversation, we learn how creativity can shift from a job to a form of healing and self-discovery, and how sharing that shift with others can be as meaningful as making the work.
I’m Alex Ruiz—a visual alchemist, creative coach, and lifelong artist obsessed with the power of imagination. My journey started in Los Angeles, where I went from sketching cartoons as a kid to becoming an animator and art director on The Simpsons for 15 years. I’ve since contributed artwork to major film productions for Disney, Marvel, and Fox, and collaborated with visionaries in the personal transformation space like Joe Dispenza, Aubrey Marcus, and Burning Man. While I’ve spent decades mastering digital and traditional art across film, video games, and VR, my true calling now lies in awakening the creative force within others. Through my workshops, one-on-one coaching, and immersive retreats, I help people reconnect with their inner artist, whether professionals seeking a creative edge or seeking to remember the magic they left behind.
Creativity isn’t just what I do—it’s how I heal, teach, and transform. Art is a portal—a direct link between the seen and unseen, the personal and universal, the conscious and subconscious. My creative process is intuitive and transformational, often drawing from dreams, shadow work, altered states, and raw emotion. I explore themes like human complexity, transmutation, divine femininity, and the surreal edges of identity through both digital and traditional media. My series Delicate Delirium reflects that: 26 mythic goddess archetypes born from medicine ceremony, psychedelic introspection, and a deep desire to intentionally bring ‘Goddess entities’ into this world, as guides, healers, protectors. As an artist, I work to alchemise inner chaos into visual language, inviting viewers to slow down, feel more deeply, and access their hidden dimensions. Whether I’m drawing, teaching, or leading an experience, my mission is to help people remember that creativity is their birthright, and making is an act of becoming.
1. You’ve worked across so many creative industries—how have those experiences shaped your creative identity today?
Working across so many creative industries has been like walking through different worlds, each expanding my lens and shaping my creative DNA unexpectedly. Starting in animation on The Simpsons gave me discipline, structure, and speed—how to tell a story in a single frame, and how to build a visual world under pressure. Then, diving into concept art for films, games, and VR with companies like Disney, Marvel, and Digital Domain pushed me into the realm of big ideas and cinematic thinking, imagining entire universes from scratch. But the more profound shift happened when I turned inward—when I started exploring personal transformation, psychedelics, and visionary art.
That’s where my work truly began to reflect who I was becoming. Projects like Delicate Delirium emerged from that space—a blend of sacred feminine archetypes, surrealism, and shadow integration. Now my creative identity is less about “producing” and more about transmuting. It combines all the roles I’ve played—animator, concept artist, retreat leader, mentor—into one mission: helping others unlock the wild, powerful creativity that’s already inside them. Creativity isn’t just my profession anymore—it’s my spiritual practice, healing, and gift to give.
I’m not here to teach people how to draw like me—I’m here to help them draw like themselves.
Alex Ruiz
2. Your work now explores healing, psychedelia, and transformation. What drew you to these themes?
Honestly, it wasn’t a conscious decision at first—I was pulled toward it, like a thread unravelling from deep within me. After years of working in entertainment—on The Simpsons, for film studios like Disney and Marvel—I hit a wall. I was burnt out from creating for other people’s visions and realised I had neglected my inner world. That’s when things started to shift. I began doing deeper personal work—therapy, shadow work, psychedelics—and suddenly, my art started changing too. I wasn’t just making images anymore; I was making portals—ways to process, reflect, and transform.
The themes of healing, psychedelia, and personal evolution started showing up in my drawings, uninvited but sincerely welcome. Series like Delicate Delirium came out of that space, where the mystical, the emotional, and the surreal meet. These days, I’m more interested in art as alchemy—a way to transmute pain, reconnect to the self, and awaken parts of us that have gone dormant. What draws me to this work is the possibility that creativity can be expressive and deeply medicinal.
3. How do you use art to help people reconnect with their inner world?
I use art as a kind of mirror—a beautifully distorted, dream-drenched mirror that reflects parts of ourselves we’ve forgotten, abandoned, or buried. When I teach or guide someone creatively, I’m not trying to make them a “better artist”—I’m helping them remember who they are underneath the noise. Because at its core, art isn’t about technique but connection. Through my workshops, coaching, and retreats, I create safe, playful, sometimes wild spaces where people can drop the pressure to perform and feel.
We draw blind. We scribble our fears. We paint the parts of ourselves we hide from the world. And in that process—through shadow, color, movement, breath—something powerful wakes up. The inner child. The inner oracle. The part of you that doesn’t speak in words, but in symbols, texture, and feeling. That’s the magic! I’m not here to teach people how to draw like me—I’m here to help them draw like themselves. And that takes honest and profound discovery on their end.
4. Your upcoming show, Delicate Delirium, blends symbolism, femininity, and vintage aesthetics. What inspired this body of work?
Delicate Delirium came out first and foremost, from a ‘getting back to the basics’ of drawing…pen and paper, that’s it! After doing ten drawings, over ten days, I was starting to go a little crazy! ‘What is this series I’m creating??? What does it mean?? When does it end??’ Then came a Peyote ceremony, and during the ceremony, the name ‘Delicate Delirium’ came to me, along with the idea for a 26 drawing series( one drawing for each letter of the alphabet!) And so, I finally knew when it would be complete: I just had to do 16 more drawings! LOL Over the next 16 days, as I drew one per day, more themes kept creeping in about what the series was becoming…or rather, revealing to me: equal parts shadow, seduction, and soul retrieval.
It wasn’t a project I planned; it was a transmission I had to survive. At the time, I was moving through a profound unraveling—spiritually, emotionally, creatively. These intricate, mythic goddesses emerged—26—each a mirror of a part of my psyche I had either rejected, desired, or forgotten. They came through in black, white, and silver ink on handmade antique paper, evoking ancient manuscripts, vintage erotica, and something timeless. I’ve always been drawn to symbolism and the surreal, but with Delicate Delirium, it became personal. These goddesses weren’t just characters—they were guides. Archetypes. Divine feminine spirit ‘creatures’ wrapped in ‘lace and chaos.’
The series explores the sacred feminine in all her forms—wild, wounded, wise—and is deeply influenced by my experiences with psychedelics, inner work, and years spent blending high-concept storytelling from my film days with mystical and emotional inquiry. Regarding the vintage aesthetic, you could say that’s the ‘grounding layer.’ I wanted these drawings to feel like ancient relics discovered, like sacred relics pulled from a dream journal. And now, through this upcoming immersive art show, I want to bring people into that world… not just to see the art, but to feel it. To remember the parts of themselves that live in shadow and light, desire and stillness. This isn’t just an exhibition—it’s a summoning.
Creativity isn’t just what I do—it’s how I heal, teach, and transform.
Alex Ruiz
5. You lead workshops and one-on-one coaching—what’s the most rewarding part of helping others unlock their creativity?
For me, the most rewarding part is witnessing that spark—that exact moment when someone realizes, “Oh damn… It’s still in me.” That raw, undeniable burst of aliveness when they stop judging and start creating, not from ego, perfectionism, but something more profound. It’s like watching someone come home to themselves. Through Infinite Artist—my coaching program, workshops, retreats—I’ve had the honor of guiding artists, entrepreneurs, and self-proclaimed “non-creatives” back to the wellspring of their imagination. And it’s not about teaching them my style.
It’s about helping them crack open their own. The breakthroughs don’t always happen with the brush or the pen—sometimes during a breathwork session, or while scribbling in the dark with eyes closed. Sometimes it’s in the silence between exercises, when something long buried finally rises up to be seen. That’s what lights me up. Watching someone go from “I’m not creative” to making something that moves them to tears—that’s the gold. Helping people remember that their creativity isn’t just decoration—it’s a doorway to healing, self-trust, and transformation. The greatest reward in all of this is watching others truly fall in love with their unique creativity!
6. Congratulations on being featured as Art Star by The Arts to Hearts Project! How do you think opportunities like this help elevate your career and open new doors for your creative journey?
Thank you! Being named an Art Star by The Arts to Hearts Project feels like a recognition and a reminder—like the universe saying, “Yep, keep going.” Opportunities like this matter, not just because of visibility, but because they affirm the deeper mission behind the work. I’m not creating to make pretty pictures—I’m creating portals, emotional maps, invitations into the unknown.
When projects like Delicate Delirium or Infinite Artist get amplified through platforms like Arts to Hearts, it opens up new dimensions—new collectors, collaborators, students, and soul family. It helps me reach the people craving something different, honest, strange, beautiful, and transformative. And on a personal level, it’s just deeply encouraging. I’ve spent decades in the trenches of animation, film, fine art, and healing spaces—moments like this remind me that all of it is converging into something meaningful. So much thanks to you all for this recognition—I’m beyond grateful, humbled, and lit up for what’s coming next!
Alex Ruiz’s work is about more than just making images. Through drawing, teaching, and guiding, he opens doors into the hidden parts of ourselves—those we’ve pushed aside, forgotten, or never fully understood. His art has symbols, emotions, and ideas that help us slow down and pay attention.
From his days on The Simpsons to creating drawings inspired by dreams and ceremony, Alex’s journey shows how creativity can help people return to themselves. We’ve learned from Alex that making art doesn’t have to be about getting it right—it can be about getting real. It’s a way to listen, grow, and remember what’s already inside us.
To learn more about Alex, click the following links to visit her profile.
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