We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Rial Rye. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Rial below.

Rial, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.

Today, I am best known for being a sculptor, working in wood, resin, cement, dye, and fiber. But, I actually spent the first five years of my artistic career working primarily in acrylic paint on canvas. Looking back, I realize that a large part of why it took me so long to move away from canvas painting was that I was unaware of my own capabilities. As a queer person of multiracial, Enslaved African, Indigenous American, and Ashkenazi Jewish descent, there aren’t a lot of depictions in media of people like me doing things like woodworking and pouring cement. So, for a long time, I didn’t even consider that I could have these skills. In 2022, I moved into a studio that was next to a Black woodworker, who taught me the basics of woodworking, and I never looked back. It really helped me to have someone I identified with and trusted to show me the ropes. Knowing what I know now, I wish I had pushed myself sooner into uncomfortable situations, especially those where I have felt unwelcome because of my race or sexuality. Learning to feel comfortable being uncomfortable in those situations has fueled my growth immensely as an artist. And I love that I can be a pioneer for brown and queer people in spaces like home improvement stores and hardware aisles, because we can do anything, and it’s so important for us to see each other succeeding in those domains.

Rial, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I am a self-taught, mixed-media artist based in Atlanta, Georgia. I work in wood, resin, cement, dye, and acrylic paint. I began my artistic practice, part-time, in 2016 and have been a full-time artist since 2022. My work is rooted in my experiences as a queer, multiracial person of Enslaved African, Indigenous American, and Ashkenazi Jewish descent. Having never been White enough, Black enough, Native enough, Jewish enough, masculine enough, feminine enough—never enough of whatever was needed to be legible within Western sociopolitical structures—I have learned to see the power inherent in the fact that my identity and very existence disrupt the binaristic logics which dictate the distribution of authority, resources, and safety in America.

Aesthetically, I similarly challenge the boundaries of movements, styles, periods, and geographies by freely blending and juxtaposing elements from a diverse set of artistic and cultural traditions, including Naïvism, Neo-Expressionism, Cubism, and traditional African and North American art forms.

Thematically, my work explores grief and trauma, both generational and personal. I learned not to cry at the age of four, following the death of my younger sister due to a rare genetic condition, called Tay-Sachs disease, which is common amongst Ashkenazi Jews. Nobody told me I should not cry. But, I knew I needed to be strong for people around me who, at that time, could not be strong for themselves. I never grieved her death. It remains hard for me to grieve. My art, typically depicting weeping figures, is how I materialize these emotions in physical form, so that they are acknowledged, released, and even ritualized, even if not through my own crying. It is my hope that my art can be similarly healing for viewers who, like me, carry the burden of ungrieved trauma and can benefit from grieving vicariously through my works.

How did you build your audience on social media?

I started my artist account only about two years ago, and I remember reading all these blogs online about tips and tricks to get followers on Instagram, and I was so overwhelmed. It just didn’t feel true to who I am to craft a certain image or post certain types of content for follows. Reading those tips just put a lot of pressure on me. I feel like I waited forever for my first post because I was so worried about getting it “right.” And that’s when I realized that a lot of the online recipes for social media success just weren’t for me. So, I decided to just be myself and not obsess about the numbers of likes or followers, and that decision really liberated me. Ever since, I’ve just been using Instagram as a way to build a community of friends and creators who are interested in my art, or the arts generally. Without buying likes or followers, it definitely does take longer to get the numbers. But, for me, it’s so much more rewarding to engage with followers who actually know me, who are friends of mine, and who are interested in what I’m doing, than to be able to brag about numbers that often aren’t even real.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

The most rewarding part of being an artist is that, through my art, I’ve been able to develop a wonderful community of friends and creators that I’ve never had before. As a creative, I think people like me so often feel different and alienated by a world and society that doesn’t place a lot of value on creative labor and creative thinking. So, it’s super easy to feel like you’re the alone in feeling and thinking differently from other people. The most surprising and amazing thing about making the decision to pursue a full-time artistic career is that I now have so many opportunities to be around fellow creatives who I can relate to. Being able to talk about the arts with other people who get equally excited about creativity and material as I do has helped me develop deep friendships with more people than I could have imagined when I started this journey. I feel so privileged to be a part of the Atlanta arts community, and humbled that it has welcomed me so warmly.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://rialrye.weebly.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rial_rye/