Artist Talk: Ryan Browning

Birth of an Island, 2008

    

Professor Browning's work really draws on his experience of interests that he has had throughout his life. I found it particularly interesting, and a little amusing, that he found inspiration in his experiences with Dungeons & Dragons and video games like Everquest. The influence on games like D&D can be seen in his work dealing with spaces; as they approach the viewer as having just been vacated by the person/creature that represented Browning's experiences. Browning pointed out that in creating his works, such as the collage Supercontinent, he was thinking of and deal with the "importance of travel" and of the idea of boundaries, and idea that comes up often throughout his work.
     Another idea that I thought was very compelling in Browning's work was his ideas of "suggesting a mythology", one that continues through his work. This idea harkens back to his experience with role-playing games, in that he is creating a world, or worlds, that can compel the viewer to imagine what life would be like in these spaces, without being forced to by seeing a specific person or character occupy these spaces. I personally also really thought his ideas about painting as being "interactive" because it makes the whole process seem much more enjoyable, as opposed stressful, which is how I normally view that specific process. As a whole, seeing Ryan Browning talk gave a nice insight into how contemporary artists work and thinking about their experiences.