The Cultural Center of Wyoming
Evolving Exploration: Linda Ryan
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Linda Ryan is an active working artist with a national exhibition record using mixed media metal casting and welding as a means of expression. She has twice been a recipient of the Wyoming Arts Council Visual Arts Fellowship, and has received a Wyoming Arts Council Individual Artist grant for travel to Greece and Turkey in support of her sabbatical exhibition. Ryan holds an M.F.A. in Sculpture, an M.A. in Jewelry and a B.A. in Applied Art. She has also studied art at the Internationale Sommerakademie für Bildende Kunst in Salzburg, Austria. For 35 years, she taught Sculpture, 3-Dimentional Design, Metals and Bronze Casting in the Visual Arts Department at Casper College. Her work, Spirit House, can be seen on campus in the Dornbos Lounge, and her design for the Foucault pendulum can be seen in the Physical Science building.
FROM THE ARTIST
I make art to find out what it’s going to look like. The process of discovery is what motivates me.
My work reflects my love of the phenomenal world and all that it has to offer both visually and tacitly. I love the physicality of materials, objects and all that surrounds me, both natural and manufactured. With collections of rust, broken windshield glass, sweet pea pods and brass shavings, I’m constantly looking at seemingly offbeat materials to incorporate and make sense in a new context. Surface, texture and scale are key.
A recurring theme in my work has been enclosure and passage through architecturally influenced forms such as alcoves, stairs and house forms. This theme has evolved over decades.
I have been especially obsessed with the angular house form seen in this exhibition, and once again, I’m returning for further exploration. In the Outside / Inside Installation, materials were collected over months of dog walking in my neighborhood and along the river. The Small House Studies provided an opportunity to explore materials associated with shelter, protection, consumption, food, money, spiritual contemplation, potential for unplanned change and our place in the universe.
