We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Ryan Patrick Martin. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Ryan below.
Ryan, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Are you happy as a creative professional? Do you sometimes wonder what it would be like to work for someone else?
I am generally in my happiest and calmest state when I’m making something in the studio. I enjoy the satisfaction of working through an idea or a problem until it’s complete, on my own terms. I think I’m a bit stubborn in that way. I prefer to stay in my studio world where things are simple. I certainly have worked my fair share of non-creative regular jobs pre-college and a couple after college, but most of them felt like I was running the clock just to get paid and I think I needed something more stimulating. For me, a good job continuously teaches and inspires and is in direct harmony with my creative life. I’m very thankful to have found these qualities while working 10+ years as a studio assistant for a handful of amazing artists. This was a great way to second-handedly feel the successes and the struggles that come along with being a full time artist. Working in these environments has taught me many life lessons – time management, finances and teamwork – and also lots of practical lessons as well like different types of materials, how to efficiently run a studio, packing and installing artwork, etc. It helped build the artist I am today in a rich and vibrant way. Of course, along with these career decisions came a financial sacrifice – making things work by piecing together paychecks and only knowing what the next two-three months looked like. This rollercoaster, however, is a fun one which keeps me on my toes and forces me to keep growing. The alternative of being in a comfortable but stagnant work environment hasn’t really ever interested me.
Ryan, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
I’m a painter, sculptor, and electronic musician weaving together these mediums into a weird wiggly world. I received my BFA from the School of Visual Arts in NYC in 2012. I started taking my art practice more seriously in 2015 and have since kept up a vibrant and active studio practice. I’ve shown my work in numerous group shows in NYC and beyond as well as recently put together a solo show “It’s Okay to Wobble” at Arbor Gallery in the Hudson Valley area of New York. In addition to installing my work in a typical gallery setting I’ve also had the pleasure to create small (sometimes functional) objects for art forward design shops. Anything from tape dispensers disguised as sculptures to sunny side up eggs made of silicone rubber. I’ve also fulfilled many commissions for one-of-a-kind furniture objects and sculptural lamps. I’m also an electronic musician. Crafting a soundtrack for my visual work. I also collaborate with other musicians often and perform live. Treating everything I make with a similar care, my aim is to create objects of joy while exercising my own playful curiosity.
Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?
Living in NYC during the covid lockdown brought many perspective shifts and anxieties for, I think, everyone? My partner and I were already dreaming of leaving the city some day and I think (like many others) the pandemic, in a way, pushed us out. We started looking at homes in the fall of ’22 and much to our surprise found ourselves closing on a home in January of ’23. We decided to relocate to a small commuter town on the east side of the Hudson river. This way we could stay connected to the city. I suppose this huge life pivot went as smoothly as one could ask for, and I’m thankful for that. Home improvements quickly became my new creative outlet. I started thinking of the house as one big sculpture. The excitement of nesting into a new home with my studio in the basement was and still is, a dream. However, the commute into the city for weekly work, I quickly realized, wasn’t exactly working for me. I often thought “if I wasn’t an artist, I’d be a farmer”. I grew up in Lancaster, Pennsylvania (Amish country) and spent one summer working on a farm so I already had some experience in the field. Pivoting from a studio assistant in the city to a vegetable farmer upstate seems like some kind of post-covid era meme, it probably is. I was able to find a small organic farm willing to take on an artist wanna-be farmer in training. I’m finding that these two lines of work, at least for me in this moment, run parallel. Setting up efficient work spaces, creating quality products, being conscious of how your body is moving at work and the act of guiding something into existence. There’s an action/re-action mode of working in the studio where you have an idea for something that doesn’t quite work which can shift the piece into a completely new direction. A very organic dialogue takes place with what’s in front of you if you are truly tuned in to what you’re working on. Similarly, There’s a certain amount of flexibility you have to have while farming to be able to move with nature’s rhythms. Farming is a very creative act. An attempt to set up certain environments to maximize how many vegetables you can gather. It’s art! And as inherently human as creative expression.
What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?
Though it comes with it’s challenges, living a creative life has been deeply beneficial for my well-being. I think practicing daily expressions in whatever form can help ground us in the present moment and open up pools for our stuck feelings to swim in. Moving through life with art glasses on can offer colorful new perspectives in what otherwise can seem like a mundane and scary world. I think it reminds us of what it was like to be a kid. Where everything was so weird and new. I still find joy in new discoveries and constantly ask myself “what if?…”, solely because of my studio practice. I don’t think we ever lose that curiosity. It’s just a matter of tuning into it and allowing ourselves to play.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.ryanpatrickmartin.com
- Instagram: slopflop
- Other: music:
shm0o0o.bandcamp.com
