What is Jack Ryan Really Saying?

Interview with Jack Ryan

Saturday, February 8, 2025

MM: You are Jack Ryan.

JR: It is true.

MM: Did you study art in Nevada?

JR: No. I studied music at the university.

MM: At UNR?

JR: Yes.

MM: Kind of like John Cage?

JR: I’ve been an artist--this is the beginning of my thirteenth year. I started when I was forty-two and it was the year of the dragon. And I got tricked into being in this play called Please by three great people, they all conspired and knew I was the person for the role. It was Bruce Lindsay, Deb Girard and Pan Pantoja, I had only known Bruce, and I had met the other two and then we did this amazing play. It took like three months—then the play was over and I had to figure out what form and what medium I wanted to be involved with as I looked forward as an artist. I didn’t want to leave this crew. We had just spent three months doing one of the most amazing things ever in my life, this play, and it was a very unique role. They had to get me, and they did. So, I began to focus on painting and painting is very much like music, the tones and the colors. To make a song you begin to take away the time, duration and rhythm aspect of it. It could be just a splatter or not or whatever. Yeah, I’m the artist formerly known as Dragons and Titties.

MM: (laughs).

JR: I changed it to the Mermexes. And if you search engine Mermexes you will find over one hundred thousand entries.

MM: Could you spell that?

JR: M-E-R-M-E-X.

MM: (laughs).

JR: Thanks for asking.

MM: Yes.

JR: Nobody ever asks. Yeah, and then having these “artist ego” kind of things have allowed me to have this discourse with myself as I’ve learned, many artists have this. Many philosophers have this. I’m a closet philosopher. And I stay in the closet because I know a lot of people who don’t really respect it or know what the hell it is.

MM: Who would that be?

JR: My son.

MM: Do you feel like your relationship with philosophy is strained?

JR: Yeah, because a lot of wisdom—this very aspect, I’m not against that. Who it is. You know, raise your hand. Yeah, but to get the philosophies to hit the rubber and hit the road. As a thing, as an artist, I’m actually going to hit the rubber to hit the road. If you see my artist statement, please call your local authorities.

MM: (laughs). So, Burning Man--am I allowed to ask you about Burning Man? I still haven’t figured out if it’s a taboo subject. Like an illuminati thing. Or should we not talk about it?

JR: No, no Burning Man is cool.

MM: What was it about Burning Man that intrigued you or how did you get involved?

JR: Burning Man is the greatest art school I could have ever been to. I grew up on the edge of the edge, of the edge of the empire and all of a sudden there was this huge party one hundred and eleven miles away from me. I went for fourteen years and it really, (laughs) yeah everybody talks about Burning Man and they say, “yeah and it really did”. I got my artist name from it and from Black Rock City and it really dared me to continue to be an artist just by being surrounded by so much boring art.

MM: At Burning Man?

JR: Yeah, at Burning Man. I would see other elements of high art. I used to watch this DJ play for twenty-four hours. I’ve seen him several times.

MM: Really, what’s the name of the DJ?

JR: Goa Gil.

MM: Is Goa Gil native to this region?

JR: He’s originally from San Francisco. And he showed up in India in the 70s and was trying to recover and was trying to heal. I guess one night there was a turntable going on and the record ended, and they decided to listen to another turntable and so the song never ends and then forty years later I would see him making a song that never ended like, for twenty-four hours.

MM: Wow.

JR: He showed me how to destroy time and much of my art is trying to represent that with color and form. This utter destruction of time.

MM: And when did you become involved with Savage Mystic Gallery?

JR: They had this spot on California and Virginia Street and I helped paint the finishing of it and this crew got that off the ground and I think that was 2019? And we moved over to E Second, here, just last summer and it’s named Savage Mystic but not because of me or anything but don’t tell them I told you I’m a Savage Mystic.

MM: Now is there anything that stands out in your mind in terms of exhibitions or influences or something you’d like to mention?

JR: You know I have noticed--and it wasn’t easy to come to notice this, my art looks better when I’m not around. I’ve seen this but I do like to sneak up on people looking at it. It’s a strange thing, you can’t just show somebody your art, “hey take a look at it, is it nice?”. Much of my art, it has to be received well, it can sneak up on you but you have to be set up for it. The subject has to be set up for it in order to receive it. Without that, I’m openly competing with “the black mirror” as an artist.

MM: The black mirror? And would you like to talk about the black mirror? What is the black mirror? I haven’t heard that term.

JR: Well, whatever you call computers. I grew up with Aboriginal awareness.

MM: And that’s part of the process?

JR: Yeah, that art is a reflection of that. They are deep mirrors meant for therapy actually. And as far as exhibitions go, I’m doing a show, March at the Savage Mystic. What kind of commercial situation is this?

MM: When is your opening here? The exact date? Do you know?

JR: Like before or after the Ides of March. I’m not even sure. I always like the late in the month art show. But I might just go with the full moon. It would be silly not to. What am I gonna do? Call the party for the third quarter? No.

MM: Exactly.

JR: Old moon, March, come to the party.

MM: Is there a local artist that speaks to you directly? Or that you were influenced by?

JR: Yeah, I hang out in this arthouse and I get wowed by some of the artists that are in this arthouse. But I have to watch it. If I go out and look really hard, I’ll see such good art I’ll say, “what the hell am I even doing?” I have to be careful with that. I get tickled by the artists that are in the Potentialist right now and we’ve been doing it consistently, ever since we went to Miami two years ago.

MM: Art Basel?

JR: What Art Basel is, we found out, that any big art exhibition is the commercial for the next thing—the next cloud to step on like, if one gets hung-up on, “I didn’t get what I wanted”, you could really deprive yourself so we are just going to the next big thing which is Exhibition Under the Mountain following in the footsteps of Pan Pantoja’s great visions of doing fruity stuff. He’s going to have like twenty artists showcasing.

MM: Really, well that’s great.

JR: Some of them are world class--pretty much. Like Daisy Mae, that’s just world class.

MM: Yes, it is. In closing is there anything about the upcoming show I at the Warhol Diaries, I know you mentioned that they are mirrors?

JR: I did a show north of the barbecue stand, in March I’m going to do some things I’ve been thinking about for the last twelve years, some things I even thought about in the first early days and apply the time and space to do those things with this product that I’ve kind of, what did I do? I made this entirely new product, I believe. That was the only way I was going to be an artist. That is, if I made something unique. That would be worthwhile blah, blah, blah. So I made a unique thing now I want to display it to soothe people’s hearts and minds and souls.

MM: It reminded me of Josh Smith’s work.

JR: Is he heavy metal?

MM: Probably, at some point in time.

JM: What is he into?

MM: He does these palette paintings. They reminded me so much of Josh that I just loved them immediately. Thank you so much and congratulations on all your success.

ARAKNIDZ performance at Jack Ryan exhibition March 28th, 2025 Reandy Warhol Diaries Gallery, Nevada.