Hamner 'juggles' a different kind of art

The space behind the checkout counter at Valley Video in Nellysford is filled not only with videos, but also with works of paintings in progress by Waynesboro-based artist Ruth Hamner.

“If it’s not moving, I paint it,” Hamner said.

And it’s true. She has painted designs and pictures on everything including chairs, footstools, walls, stairways, desks, tables and even a metal crab or two.

“I’m a juggler,” she said. “While the paint is drying on one, I’m working on the other one.”

Her latest project is a small table and two chairs she is painting for Kathy Pevey, who will use the set for her grandson Connor, 5, to play on.

Pevey, of Stoney Creek, met Hamner a year ago, and has been working with her ever since, she said.

“She’s been able to decorate my house a lot and I just love it,” Pevey said. “She’s got a real personality. I just thought what she was doing was fun.”

Hamner, 67, has painted other works of art for Pevey, including a decorative chair for her bathroom and a black and white stepstool for Connor, who is a primordial dwarf, to use.

Hamner, whose family is native to the Nelson County area, began painting on canvas and furniture more than eight years ago while she was living in North Carolina.

“I was bored,” she said. “We were in Durham and I took some painting classes. I don’t like painting flowers on boxes, so I started bringing in furniture.”

She began painting more in 2005 after opening a video rental store in Nellysford.

On Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, Hamner would bring her projects into the store while business was slow and start painting.

“It ended up opening the door more to the (painted) furniture,” she said. It’s wonderful because I’d bring my junk in here and paint them and stick them out front.

“People come in to buy a card and walk out with children’s furniture.”

Her inspirations come from everywhere. Customers, like Pevey, will make special requests. Or Hamner will pick up an old piece of furniture from her favorite second-hand store and turn it into a work of art.

“I do my creative thinking at four in the morning,” she said. “When I wake up, I’m fresh and I’m thinking about different pieces. I’m just so passionate about it now. Every day is a new adventure. I love it.”

It’s hard for her to pick a favorite piece out of the hundreds she’s done over the years for customers or herself, but she said the strangest thing she had ever painted was a portrait of a nude Marilyn Monroe.

“My husband was the technical adviser on that one,” she said. “I loved it.”

Soon, Hamner will not own the Valley Video store in Nellysford, but she plans to continue painting when she moves to her new location in Waynesboro.

“I’m going to bop until I drop,” she said. “As long as I can see, I’ll paint it.