Ryan Cooper Carl's art is undeniably memorable
When you first meet Ryan Cooper Carl, you know you’re in for an interesting conversation. “I painted that mural,” he gestures. He is referring to the massive, trippy, pork-themed work that greets you on the main wall of Moe’s Original Barbecue on Market Street.
Carl got the opportunity from Mellow Mushroom’s Jason Jones, who also operates Moe’s. Jones needed an artist to adorn the large walls in his restaurants.
So Carl broke out the scaffolding, acrylic paint and brushes to let the process begin. The mural is part galactic and psychedelic; part landscape with a pig looking blissed out.
“I want to convey particular ideas presented to me,” says Carl. “Simplistic, detailed, exotic woven canvases start raw in the center and become more detailed as the image moves to the edges.”
His work could also be described as non-objective, with swirls, part illusion, hallucinogenic, bits and portions of arms and faces. A patchwork really.
“My work combines realistic detail with choppy brushstrokes,” says Carl.
He describes the opportunity to paint murals as random chance. Carl’s love of the galaxy and space infiltrate many of his works.
“I believe in life on other planets,” laughs Carl. “You are probably going to paint me as some weirdo but mathematically it’s impossible we’re alone in the universe.”
Carl is actually very down-to-earth and if he ever gets too far out, he always has his fiancé who is an accountant to keep him in check.
“I recently learned what hashtagging is,” says Carl. “It allows you to keep an eye on what your contemporaries are doing.”
It also allows the artist to know the right high-profile art shows to attend on the festival circuit.
Live music painting is another artistic avenue Carl loves. He was asked to participate in the Bonnaroo Arts and Music Festival Installation honoring Tom Petty last year.
“Matt Livingston with Lazy Monday Productions shot a great time lapse video showing me getting the piece ready for the live tribute,” says Carl. The result is a painting of Tom Petty in all his psychedelic glory.
Carl also cites other live music events around town like Camp Chilla at Ziggy’s, JJ’s Bohemia, and MAINX24.
The New Year’s Eve Bassnectar show in 2017 is the kind of event where Carl shines. The event’s organizers’ intentions were to design a magical portal into an alternate universe.
“When you cross the Threshold, we intend to explore new undiscovered dimensions using a time machine built out of human energy,” said organizers. “Sound unrealistic? We don’t think it’s unrealistic; we think it is inevitable. A totally new physical space, a custom cut portal where we can converge as one big family to bring in the future together.”
The custom cut portal was at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta, where Carl was thankful for the service elevator to avoid the crush of people ringing in the New Year.
He cites Irish graffiti artist Colon Harrington as an influence. Harrington started his career as a teenager tagging and doing graffiti anywhere he could in the streets of Ireland. Most of these nights were called hip-hop nights, where he would hang out with the DJs and MCs from around the country at clubs in 1990s Ireland.
Harrington uses realistic images of people and combines them with abstract elements that incorporate a meaning and story that relate to the events unfolding at the time. His pieces have been called dreamlike with the balance between the senses and then the realism of the figures in the piece.
You might feel like you’re in a dream if you visit Hipster Vibes on Hixson Pike. This is where another large scale piece of Carl’s portrays a Rastafarian lion who greets clients to the head shop.
Carl also uses his interest in portraiture to paint and memorialize celebrities. Jeff Bridges’ The Dude from The Big Lebowski, Robin Williams and Bangerz-era Miley Cyrus are just a few realistic likenesses Carl depicts of these legends.
Carl faces the same dilemma many artists face: How to price your art.
“I would rather my art be in people’s hands rather than be stingy with it,” he says. “But if you price it by the square foot you’re not accurately valuing the piece. One square foot might be blank, the other very detailed.”
He thinks most artists tend to sell themselves short.
“I just hope to keep painting murals and spread the awareness; to share this visual storytelling.”
You can step inside his mind at @cooperdome.