Ryan Runcie
I am a studio artist, muralist and painting instructor local to Austin, Texas but find myself traveling constantly for the creation and engagement of art. I find that no matter what topics I express in my work, my foundation is always a posture of seeking to understand. It is my hope that I may play a role, no matter how humble, in beginning a cultural shift in how we view ourselves and each other. My work is where I feel the most free to be vulnerable and engage my own biases and insecurities and in doing so, I enable others to get a little vulnerable too.
Being born to Jamaican parents in small-town Texas, I feel fortunate to have the confusing experience of growing up as a biracial, first-generation American man. I was able to, in my youthful ignorance, test and blur lines that I didn’t know existed. My art is a tenuous and experimental engagement in blurring these lines on a public scale; allowing the loose expression of color to side step the mind’s need to categorize and understand in accordance with race, ethnicity, and stereotypes. My goal is to give you a moment to point to your impression of this artwork and to ask, “In this, what is the intention of my heart” and maybe learn to empathize a little bit better.