Linda Ryan

by Holly Strother
Tuesday, February 12, 2008 2:49 PM MST

An idea is all Casper College sculpture and jewelry making instructor Linda Ryan uses when she starts a project.

"I'm very experiential. I want to see it. I want to smell it. I want to feel it, and I think that's important in art," Ryan said. "If I knew what the end result was going to be before I even started the piece, it would be finished in my mind.

“The reason I take the journey to get there and explore these things is to find out how it is going to end. I don't try to preconceive the end, but I do start out with a general notion or an outline, a general concept of what I want to do and the joy for me is that exploration involved in getting there," she said.

Some of Ryan's works are the White Buffalo and a panel from the Nicolaysen Art Museum and Discovery Center's "Where the Buffalo Roam" and "Windows on Wyoming" projects.

She said her other work tends to be more installation based than the more permanent styles.

For the Jackson Hole exhibit "Bucking Tradition and Culture: A Woman's Place," Ryan entered a vessel created with glass shards while exploring the concept of Third World women and their daily physical struggle to provide water for their families.

Ryan also entered various books created by a series of artists that are part of the NIC exhibit "The Story Within: A Dialogue Among Artists."

Her current project is a Foucault pendulum planned for installation in the college's physical science building.

She is designing the floor of the pendulum using Wyoming-based materials and strong references to ancient wisdom and sacred geometry.

Ryan said she enjoys volunteering at summer youth art camps headed by fellow artist Jessica Holt. Called Bauen Camp, it draws children from all over the world between the ages of 13 to 18.

"Bauen Camp does such incredible things to bring leadership and creativity together, and I'm a real strong proponent of Bauen Camp," Ryan said.

"That's where I think it's really important as a human being and as an artist to find a way to serve others and to continue to evolve leadership and creativity. I really think it's important," she said.

Ryan was born in Bartlesville, Okla. The family moved to follow her father's work and they eventually settled in Great Falls, Mont. She graduated from high school there and then attended college at MSU in Bozeman.

There she was exposed to jewelry making under the tutelage of Richard Helzer. At one point, Ryan said she considered pursuing a career in architecture, but decided instead to attend a graduate program in Ellensburg, Wash., that was highly influenced by funk art or West Coast-based art.

After earning her MA, she decided to pursue the pinnacle degree for art instructors, an MFA, in Morgantown, W.Va.

Ryan traveled after graduation and continued to study art and culture across North America. When she was selected for the Casper College job 25 years ago, she said it "felt like home."

"Much like trying on a dress and the dress fits," she explained.

Ryan and her husband, Louie Kistler, make their home in Casper with their two dogs, Luce and Breve.

To view Ryan's work, call 268-2671. For more Information on Bauen Camp, log on to www.thebauencamp.com.

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