Ryan Wade Ruehlen was born on September 28th, 1984, the year George Orwell had predicted society would be completely infultrated by ‘big brother’. He was born in Hays, Kansas and is the eldest of four children. Ruehlen was interested in art from an early age and was deeply encouraged by his mother throughout his youth to continue working in such a manner. He was highly influenced by his environment; the high plains of Kansas and its vast openness and nearly endless expanse of wheatfields, tall grass and bright blue sky. His environment played not only a positive role in developing his creativity but also a negitive one, through the social boundries that were stifling to his psyche. His home, an incredibly conservative, Christian place had brought on an intense feeling of “cognitive dissonance” which he could not understand through his early and teenage years growing up. Everything was rigid and preconceptualized to allow no room for new ideas, especially ones that did not fit the Judeo-Christian world view. His religious upbringing not only forced a specific spiritual perspective, but also upheld the long standing patriarchal, abusive domination of man over women. Watching his mother be controlled and hurt for most of her life and seeing her positive spirit be diminished he found that this rigid male/female role was not only incorrect but needed to be completely destroyed. Thus, later in life his art would develop through his concentration on and response to the feminine energy source of creativity as well as the dismantling of gender roles.

It was not until early adulthood that Ruehlen began to truly break free from his earlier boundries and begin to experience the world as a new, beautiful and cosmically connected home. He became incredibly intrigued by religious and cultural history from all around the world, and grew more and more captivated but the psychedelic and mystical experiences of shamans, medicine men, earth priestesses and priests, and natural healing. His experimentation not only brought on a sense of incredible self-knowing but also a sense of terror and oblivion, which some may attribute to “egocide”. His psychedelic experience of paradoxically knowing all and knowing absolutely nothing became the force which gave his art direction and meaning. By realizing and understanding his old self and world view he created a place where everything was strange and dark, hilarious and broken, but also completely interconnected and rooted in compassion.

Today, Ruehlen continues to work in the vein of this strangeness, of observing societal roles and developing esoteric environments to foster his perception of the mystical realm of the everyday life, a land of unfamiliar characters and spirits of confusion and clarity. His imagery remains rich with color, deeply spiritual and humorous. He believes that to break oneself of preconceptions one must laugh and make fun of constructions as well as wonder/wander and imagine new ones. He has found there is a fine line between ignorance of these conditions and the over-intellectualization of them. Most of his artistic influences have come from listening to nature’s quiet language, not people’s loud words. He is a strong proponent of bringing about androgynous energy that we have neglected for centuries if not millennia, and believes that patriarchal/capitalist society is the root of the majority of our modern problems. By embracing this energy we can create a world that is compassionate and loves the earth instead of destroying it for profit. Where all life is sacred and intereconnected. This vision comes through not only in his paintings, drawings and sculptures but in the music he creates.

Ruehlen has a Bachelors in Fine Art from Fort Hays State University and currently lives and works in Chicago, Illinois with his partner Krystal. He frequents the prairie lands of Kansas when he can. He feels that it will always be a mystical place for him to experience.

You may contact Ryan directly at ryan@rwruehlen.com.