As a fabric artist and graphic designer Mairs Ryan focuses on environmental and social justice. Years spent as an activist influence the subjects of her textile and paper collages. Her digital portraits raise awareness of marginalized communities, honoring victims of violence through community art.

Mud Pies

My sisters and I created mud pie art in our backyard. Artists-in-residence as it were. We sculpted the pies out of fistfuls of dirt from our Santa Barbara garden, forming our medium with water brought from the kitchen in glass marmelade jars. Using neighborhood geranium and plumbago petals we embellished each pie. Curating them as they baked iin the sun n our driveway, I thought I had discovered a new art form. Instead, what I had found was my love of making.

Maker

I moved on from mud pies (mostly) but I have never stopped making. Embroidery and batik in Louisiana. Landscape architecture in Scotland. Quilting in the foothills of California. Logo design in my graphics studio.

Today I work with textiles and fibers. My media include recycled non-synthetic cloth and rope and natural dyes. My illustrations are sketched, then computer- generated so as to be reproduced on fabric.

Onward

In a sense, I am still making mud pies. Mixing this and that to create something entirely new and then laying it out for the world. As I continue with my art, I work to illuminate issues of injustice–both social and environmental.