We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Ryan Henry Ward a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Ryan Henry, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Are you able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen?

I made the decision to be a full-time artist after an accident. I made a dozen paintings and built a portfolio to bring around to find a gallery. After finding a gallery I bought a truck for 300 dollars and a friend gave me a camper for it. I was showing in a gallery and living as simple as I could in the city of Seattle. I began painting murals around the city by knocking on peoples doors with walls that had great exposure. All the pieces fell into place little by little.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I’m most known for my mural work. I also own a small gallery and sell canvas work. Lately Ive been moving into products like clothing, skateboards, and books.

I got into the industry by initially showing some work in some cafes in my college town. I had a very strong immediate response and years later decided to take it to the professional level and it worked from that point by selling quite a few pieces in my first gallery show. A few months after my first gallery show someone hired me to do a mural and I loved it a lot. I sought out walls and kept painting until people wanted to pay me for it.

My mission is to paint this world that lives in my head as many places and spaces as I can before I die.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

In 2008, a year after I started painting murals I had a psychotic episode that landed me in the mental hospital for 6 weeks. I was diagnosed with drug induced schizophrenia. I had cold turkey withdrew off of painkillers I had from my doctor for a back injury and I lost my mind. 6 months later I was back to painting murals.

Can you share your view on NFTs? (Note: this is for education/entertainment purposes only, readers should not construe this as advice)

I just decided not to do them because the value of my originals is going up constantly. I haven’t been able to quite get myself to sell NFT’s because Im worried people will lose money on their investments because the market is fragile.

Contact Info:

• Website: itsahenry.com
• Instagram: Henry_beyond_museums
• Facebook: Henry Beyond Museums

Image Credits
all credits go to Ryan Henry Ward