Backwoods Kind of Beautiful
By Adam Barraclough
Ryan Greis, Hill Jenkins, 20"x29", from the "Pooptooth" series, acrylic, oil, watercolor and colored pencil
Ryan Greis may pay the bills with illustration work for magazines like Cincinnati’s City Beat and New York Press, but his heart lies in less urbane locales. Employing exaggerated stereotypes and a brilliant (if somewhat dark and fractured) sense of realism, Greis has created a series of portraits and paintings dubbed "Pooptooth" that celebrate his Eastern-Kentucky Appalachian roots. Infused with the spirit of local legends, tall tales and rural braggadocio, the "Pooptooth" series has been receiving gallery and critical attention. Deservedly so, as Greis’ attention to detail and exacting technique elevates these pieces beyond mere fantasy and whimsy.
Adam Barraclough: Tell me about the mediums used for the "Pooptooth" paintings.
Ryan Greis: The paintings are created by building up thin layers of acrylic, oil, watercolor and colored pencil. I love this technique because it’s more drawing-based and less painting-based. I didn’t take too many painting classes so, in that sense, I’m self-taught.
AB: The "Pooptooth" series utilizes some rather brilliant exaggerations of Appalachian stereotypes. I understand that these paintings have evolved from a series of portraits you’ve drawn using obituaries from your home town as reference material. At what point did you decide to move this in the overtly exaggerated and rather fantastic direction we now see?
RG: For the past five or six years, most of my artwork has been created for different U.S. newspapers. The deadlines were tight (three or four days), and, for that reason, I realized that I just wasn’t creating my best work. So, I began working on this current series, "Pooptooth". That’s when I decided to move in a slightly different direction. I’m able to spend a lot more time on my paintings, and tell the stories that I’m comfortable with.
AB: Do these characters have backstories? Do you find yourself attaching narratives to your pieces when producing them? How important is that to your work?
RG: My background is in illustration, so I’m used to visually narrating. These characters and scenes have stories. I leave the message fairly vague, though. I like to create images that feel as though they could have been torn out of the middle of a story. I leave it to the viewers to wrap their interpretation around it. It’s important to me to create characters that people can relate to. The cast of characters is fun-loving, love to drink, dance, fight, sleep and have sex. They live life as though they’re on a constant vacation. I can definitely relate to that.
AB: You’ve described "Pooptooth" as your version of folk art, but there is some truly accomplished technique at work here, despite the rough and rural nature of your subject matter. What artists have influenced your style, and where do you turn for inspiration on that level?
RG: I’m the only person that would ever describe my work as folk art. Truly, it’s not. I give true folk artists total credit. I’m just a white, middle-class, educated man. For that reason, technically, I can’t sing the blues, I can’t dance, I can’t get out of a speeding ticket and I can’t create folk art (oh yeah, and I can’t jump). I just paint what I know. And that’s growing up in Kentucky. Once I’ve painted all I know, I’ll stop painting. My inspirations come from artists like Charles Bragg, N.C. Wyeth, Mary Blair, Norman Rockwell (not to sound too clich�), J.C. Leyendecker, Arthur Rackham, Howard Pyle. More illustrators than artists (they’d get the joke).
AB: How has audience reception differed from region to region as you’ve shown this work? Do you find a much different response from the New York crowd than you do from a more Midwestern audience?
RG: I’m playing off stereotypes. New York City is more receptive to my work than LA. There are simply more magazine, book and newspaper publishers in NYC. They get the narrative aspect of my pieces. And, they get the style, the twisted sense of realism. Everything’s not so pretty in New York. I don’t think people there were babied and spoiled like a lot of the kids who grew up in California. Every day’s not a sunny day in New York. New Yorkers are more in touch with the real, rotten world than Californians. But, don’t get me started.
AB: What do you have coming up in terms of events and exhibitions?
RG: After this interview, I’m sure my chances of gallery exposure in L.A. will die. So, I’m hoping for more New York shows. I’m also currently in talks with Jordu Schell, a talented sculptor. We will be collaborating on a latex bust of my main Pooptooth character that could lead to a series of masks. We’ll see.
