It might seem a few moons past since we’d heard hide nor hair of Detroit-born and Ohio-resident, sculptor and HF fave Chris Ryniak (HF Vol. 10), but thatdoesn’t mean he hasn’t been the busy little bee. With a few choicewords and some nerd wrangling, the elusive artist emerges from his artcave to give us the scoop on what all he’s been up to these last fewmonths.
So tell us young Jedi, what hast thou been up to?
LOTS! Sculpting Prototypes and master Sculpts for new toys and figures, customizing toys, hanging out with my kids, training the new dog, yardwork…you know all the glamorous suburban dad-artist stuff.
I’d heard a rumour that you were taking a break from painting shows and such for a bit, so what’s with all these sneak peek pics? Are these not for shows?
Well, after my last show I kind of had a much needed meltdown and stopped painting for about 7 months. These new paintings are part of a solo show in September at MyPlasticHeart in NYC. This show will be something completely different for me, but more what I think my niche is in the art world. It will be comprised of custom versions of my own toys as well as other platform figures as well and few paintings thrown in the mix.
I’m going back to my roots for the painting aspect…I think my work got too far away from me in the past couple of years…now I’m reeling it back in, trying to be more honest with myself.
Since you have so much time on your hands, what do you fill it up with these days? Learned any new languages? Know any good spells from studying your Harry Potter books?
PShhh, time on my hands? Never! I have more individual pieces in progress in my studio than I ever have before. I think my last tally was 55…but I just received 30 more resin figures that need to be hand-painted…so that’s up to 85 now. I’ve been spending the last 6 months sculpting and doing developmental drawings for more dimensional work. I need to learn some symmetry sculpting spells though, that shit kills my brain sometimes.
If you had a favorite movie, besides the obvious Twilight series, what would you prefer to watch again tonight?
My default is the Dark Crystal. But I’ll nerd out and say Krull.
And how do you feel about the rumour of a Dark Crystal remake?
I’m not sure how to feel about it. My gut reaction is that they’re going to ruin it with CG and that the story will be lost under trying to make it look all perfect. I would love to be proven wrong, of course, the world can ALWAYS use more Skeksis.
Screw 5 years, where do you see yourself in 5 months?
Knee deep in snow, cursing the gods for forsaking me, wishing it was still summer. I think I’m going to get back to painting, seeing as how my easel and I have reconciled our differences as of late. I have some toy/statuette sculpting projects that will hopefully be completed by then and well into manufacturing.
If you had to tell a kid one thing about growing up, what would that be?
To enjoy not having the burdens of responsibilities as much as you can for as long as you can. And to never take yourself too seriously. And never take candy from Nathan Spoor.