HotwingNine

In case you haven't guessed, The Creative Beast is not my real name. I was born Ryan Irish, of Randolph, Vermont and raised in Norwalk, CT. I have been a New Yorker since 2000.

Learning to create and develop an artistic style has been a rocky, up-hill road for me. From middle school up, my teachers realized that although talented, I was not a conventional learner. This was sometimes addressed by giving me more creative freedom or other times rigid structure, but most often I was lost in the crowded classroom of 30+ students to struggle on my own. One good thing came of this however, an aptitude for creative problem solving that would serve me well in the future.

I have had some success at several accredited and non-accredited art schools, namely The Silvermine School of Art (New Canaan, CT) The Art Institute of Boston, (MA) and most recently The Art Students League of New York, where I currently hold a student membership. I have a short list of instructors that really made an impact on me, but I want to mention one man, Jak Kovatch. He changed my life as an artist, and he probably doesn't know it, though I think I made an impression on him too.

Sometimes when I sit down at the desk, colors and forms fly out onto the paper like an exploding box of crayons. Other times, my marker pens are lined up and color-coded, and every line is premeditated. Prepare to love or hate my work, but you are sure to like something eventually, as I seem to change with the weather. Some of my work is original, and some is intentionally derivative as I strive to pay homage to the things that inspire me. I consider myself very much an outsider artist, with some insider knowledge.