Gregory Peter Ryan: The Art of

Gregory Peter Ryan is a gifted artist with a quirky sense of style and personality.

He is somewhat of a nomad and is usually found in Newfoundland, Montreal or B.C. or somewhere in between. He is in Kelowna BC right now selling his artwork, I caught up with him on a recent pass through Montreal.

I wanted to take a moment to celebrate his art and tell you what he is into.

Greg has just finished painting the notorious outside of Chez Jose cafe on Duluth, see the photos above... and check out an interview with him below.

What do you do?

I make prints and pieces and different types of clothing; t-shirts, summer scarves, bandannas, that is kinda what I am into right now and whatever I can get my hands into. What inspires you to do what you do?My friends and life and old Japanese samurai movies and horror movies, city streets...and everything

How did you get started?

My parents did a lot of art with me as a kid and they were supportive of that so I guess that helped, my dad used to buy me comic books when I went to the dentist and Doctor because there was a drug store near there, so it was my reward for going to the doctor. I got out of comics for a few years. I visited a friend for the first time in a long time, he was living in Carbonear at the time, I go out there with all my GI Joes and comic books, I was thirteen I figured he'd still be into the same stuff.... went in, He wasn't, but we both got into comics again because of that. I wanted to be a comic artist for years, I got into design and art, I went to art school and that helped. I went to College of the North Atlantic and did a bit of design, then I went to Concordia for a few years and I did a year just helping in the screen printing studios just monitoring, I didn't really go to school, I was just finishing some incompletes and whatever but ya a few years at Concordia.... and now I just do it on my own.

What is your current vice or trend you are really into?

Montreal girls are a current vice and making lots of art, I'm really into that.. and helping people out. If someone is down on their luck and I can help them out I'll do it. If I can help someone get a really good roommate hook up or anything like that, I just try to do that as much as I can.

What advice would you give to someone just starting out and trying to make their dreams or ideas a reality?

Just do it. Don't think, just act. The only person stopping you from doing whatever you want, is yourself. Shoot for the stars, make mistakes, don't let anyone stop you, Don't get caught up in talking about your shit, doing too much research, finding equipment and not doing anything with it, just suck it up and do it, because until you do it, you talk talk talk, you have nothing, just do it, you will figure it out on your way and the more you do it, the easier it becomes. That kind of applies to everything in life but definitely for art and creating stuff.

Other things Greg suggests for inspiration:

If you have never been to St.John's Newfoundland, then you really have to go, or hiked Mount Royal Mountain and spent some time in the woods, not on the trails, you should totally do that, and the mountains in BC, and for websites find whatever you are into, I am into everything, fecalface.com is an art website based out of San Francisco and they cover all sorts of stuff from all around the world, that is a really good resource and good site for inspiration, woostercollective is a street art website with the best street art from all around the world, stencilrevolution.com is the ultimate website for stenciling, just check out the site, they have web forums, they will teach you how to do everything. And geekology.com, it 's a science and technology, weird stuff blog. It's really funny, there is lots of interesting stuff there. And failblog.org, because the most ultimate fails ever are caught on photo and video and put up on the website, you will be laughing.