ASI African American Art Teacher Shares his Artist Statement and Artwork to Inspire Youth

Ryan Tillman: Artist Statement

Allow me to take you on a mythological journey to an alternative universe where you will be immersed in with quirky characters in an endless battle between good and evil. Mythology has been a large part of my life growing up in the church. I would read the bible and imagine myself being within those stories interacting with those characters.

As a sculptor, I want to create my own mythological story where I build my own imagined characters using nontraditional materials. Because they inhabit an imagined world, it is my intention that they interact with one another through the manipulation of the shadows in a way that changes the dynamic of this alternate universe into something uncanny. My intent is to bring you into a fantasy where imagination comes to life and one is completely overwhelmed with everything happening in this universe. I, myself, am very curious to find out what is going to happen when my mythological world collides with the human world, as I do not work from foregone conclusion and allow the narrative to unfold and reveal itself to me as I create it.