Vanessa Ruiz

Vanessa Ruiz is the driving force behind Street Anatomy, an online art gallery that showcases human anatomy in art, design and pop culture. Since its 2007 launch, Street Anatomy has published more than 1,000 posts that feature human anatomy in drawings, tattoos, 3-D printing, interior design, fashion and other media.

Ruiz conceived Street Anatomy as an AHS student, fascinated by the surge in street art and the lack of public knowledge about the profession of medical illustration. Today, her website is a fully branded platform with an international following and nearly 100,000 followers on Facebook (Street Anatomy is also on Instagram and Twitter).

Ruiz was a featured speaker in November 2015 at TEDMED 2015 in Palm Springs, California. Her speech was live-streamed to more than 200,000 viewers in some 140 countries.

After graduation, Ruiz was associate art director, then senior art director, at AbelsonTaylor healthcare marketing agency. She now works in healthcare user interface and product design.

“Whether it be through cartoons, body painting, or street art, anatomical art has the power to reach far beyond the pages of a medical textbook,” Ruiz says in her TEDMED Talk, “ultimately connecting our innermost selves with our bodies through art.”