EDITOR’S NOTE: For preview coverage of the 49th Utah Arts Festival, which runs June 19-22, The Utah Review is presenting individual or group profiles of artists, performers, entertainers and some newcomers to the event. There are several new features this year: Voodoo Productions’ street theater will include roaming graffiti stilt walkers, contortionists and living master works of art. Salt Lake Acting Company will appear for the first time at the festival, offering a sample from its upcoming summer show, The Secret Lives of the Real Wives in the Salt Lake Hive. Urban Arts is offering its largest live graffiti mural installation, while a row of several other artists will be demonstrating their creative process in real time. For kids, as admission for those 12 and under will be free, there will be plenty of make-and-take art options in Frozen Spaces in the Art Yard. The City Library auditorium will be the home to the 22nd edition of the international Fear No Film program, with the strongest slate of narrative short films in the event’s history. Of course, dance, who wears the empress jewels in performing arts, will be represented by Repertory Dance Theatre, Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company, Echoing Spirit Dancers and, of course, the ever-popular 1520 Arts, at The Round. For tickets and more information, see the Utah Arts Festival website.
ASH RYAN
The Urban Arts venue at the festival has a powerhouse lineup of muralists this year who will be working throughout the festival weekend. Among them is Ash Ryan, a Philadelphia-based street artist and muralist, who specializes in creating strikingly realistic works characterized by an expansive spectrum of saturated colors, seamless blends, and vivid imagery. Themes in her work explore social justice, inclusion, diversity, queer culture, the environment and women’s rights. Ryan has painted murals for notable clients such as Ticketmaster, Target, the National Association of Realtors, Kids Against Hunger and Grocery Outlet. Her work has earned widespread recognition, with features in Variety Magazine, Philadelphia Magazine, Fox News, and numerous publications worldwide.
TUR: The presence of the Urban Arts venue has contributed to coalescing the community’s acceptance and perceptions of graffiti and many forms of street art as legitimate, worthy of the same merit and acknowledgment as any other form of visual arts. I would like your opinions and perspectives on how you have seen your work best represent your own creative persona?
AR: My personality versus my work is a very odd juxtaposition. I generally only wear black, listen to grindcore, punk, death metal and dark wave music, I start celebrating Halloween in May and have embodied the quiet punk/goth chick that sat in the back of class doodling in her sketchbook. Yet my mural work is very resplendent with saturated colors and I generally paint pretty portraits, hands, flowers, butterflies, moth and birds. I think my personal mural work leans more gothic and Victorian (I try to put in lace, pearls, candles when I can), and my artwork outside of my murals leans more towards dark surrealism. As a muralist, I do like to paint imagery that can be appreciated by the general public and now, saturated flora and fauna is my bread and butter.
TUR: What is your training as a street, graffiti and public mural artist? Who do you consider your most significant influences and inspirations? Do these influences shift as you progress both in your work and life?
AR: I have acquired a Bachelor of Art degree which allowed me to expand my comprehension of visual artistry and lay down the foundation for my art career. But really, pure boredom is actually what led me to become a muralist (jk). I used to run around different cities painting eyes (hence Ash Eye Art) but was actually a floral designer during that time. When I lost my job during the pandemic I started painting at Graffiti Pier in Philadelphia to fill up time (an abandoned coal-loading dock and haven for graffiti artists). My work gained traction on Instagram and soon I was being asked to paint murals.
TUR: Do you work full-time exclusively as an artist? Or, how do you augment your work as an artist?
AR: Yes, fortunately I work full-time as a muralist. Mural season on the east coast generally runs from April until November, but during the winter I do a few interior mural gigs, as well as polytab murals (a process where you paint on canvas-like material in a studio and then install with an adhesive gel on site). During slow months I also work on mock-up designs on Procreate and personal art projects on canvas. I also create licensed art for companies.
TUR: What do you see as the trends, challenges and opportunities forthcoming in the next few years with regard to street, public and graffiti art?
AR: A challenge I am worried about that is fast approaching is the use of AI disrupting the public art market, as well as infringing on the intellectual property rights of artists as it scrapes and plunders humanity’s collective works of art that have ever been uploaded to the internet. The human mind is capable of so much creativity, and the use of AI will hinder that growth as an artist. I am also seeing a trend of using VR headsets as a way to sketch the linework on the wall, but the doodle grid or grid method is much more efficient, especially for larger walls. In terms of opportunities I hope that the internet has shown more people that spray paint is not solely for vandalism, but a great tool for muralists that allows them to cover up textured walls, paint quickly and efficiently, and achieve smooth blends which is difficult to achieve with brush paint.
TUR: With regard to participating in the Utah Arts Festival, please share your feelings about being a part of this enterprise? Have you been in other festivals and do you plan to explore other festival venues?
AR: I used to live in Salt Lake City and always enjoyed attending the Utah Arts Festival. Now that I get to be a part of the festival, I feel like this is a full circle experience. I’ve painted at Art Basel as well as a few festivals in Philadelphia and I love the atmosphere, the artistic liberty and tapping into the creative energy that an art festival generates.
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