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Artist Crush: Catherine Ryan

Tuesday, February 22, 2011 · 3 Comments

Catherine Ryan is a Bay area artist I’ve watched and admired for a while. Her work explores the complex and often unsettling questions around our relationship with animals and nature. The figures in her paintings interact with wild animals in ways that show their desire to feel separate and/or superior while also underlying how similar the two actually are. In her own words (via Gallery Hijinks) Ryan describes her work as “Tense, Scary, Sad, Childlike, Mythical.”

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The artist describing her layering process:

I start with a charcoal drawing on paper that I erase and redraw as many times as it takes until I’m happy with it. Then I coat it with acrylic medium and then draw on top of that and repeat the process a few times. Then I seal the drawing again with acrylic medium and paint on top of that.

I’ve never had the chance to see her work in person but I imagine it must read quite differently than it does on a computer screen.

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Catherine’s work will be on show at The Letter Collector at Gallery Hijinks in SF starting March 5th. Go see it if you’re in the area!

Tags: Art

3 responses so far ↓

  • 1 cathie // Feb 23, 2011 at 1:51 pm

    these are truly amazing. i thought they were collages and am even more taken with the fact that they’re charcoal and acrylic. i agree, i bet they look quite different in person.

  • 2 hena tayeb // Feb 23, 2011 at 5:52 pm

    wow.. these are stunning… the textures and the layers of work are amazing

  • 3 Nicole Miazgowicz // Feb 26, 2011 at 4:30 pm

    Thanks for sharing!! I love that she shared a bit of her process, so interesting and beautiful!! And you’re right, I’d love to see these in person, I’m sure the texture really adds to the piece.

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