Finding Home With Lori Ryker
A boundary-defying creative dynamo—painting, printmaking and designing buildings
SIXTEEN SUNSETS II (Four Directions Series)
16 monoprints on paper, mounted on painted finished plywood
27 x 27 inches
lorirykerart.com
studioryker.com
THE ARTIST: Lori Ryker
KNOWN AS: A boundary-defying creative dynamo—painting, printmaking and designing buildings.
AN ARTISTIC EXPEDITION: “I’m highly motivated by adventure and exploration. Whether it’s building, painting, drawing, hiking, writing—it’s all just a type of interaction in the world.”
THE FEELING OF A PLACE: “I chose to live in Montana because of the landscape, the drama and that love of adventure. For me, it was really like finding home. My work really grows out of that.”
ON COLOR: “If I’m trying to capture a particular feeling, it’s usually communicated through color. I don’t want to be caught up in trying to represent things as they are seen in nature. With the Sixteen Sunsets series, I was thinking about that spiritual connection for me of sunsets in the West. It’s not just one; it’s the accumulation of experiencing them over time—all of those colors are present in sunsets.”
ENVIRONMENTALISM: “That’s my first priority in life: being more responsive and responsible to the landscape and place. In the things that I make, it’s always upfront in my mind. How do I have people appreciate landscape more by a painting that I make? And in the architecture, it’s really more about being a part of the place, rather than standing out from the place.”
NEXT: “My experience in building is now starting to overlap with my interest in artmaking. I’m going to start making much larger pieces that will take all of my knowledge base. Since I have that ability to work in wood or craft or steel, I want to stretch it further and see what shows up.”
