Hello, my name is Ryan Merritt.
I’m a painter based in Troy, Michigan. I guess I’ve always loved thinking creatively and looking back I suppose I’d say my life as an artist really started with me playing GI-Joe in my bedroom as a little kid. I remember acting out very detailed, heavily dramatic battles between my toy figures, and at some point, the toys weren’t enough; I needed another way to visualize these wonderful battles I was having! I wanted to be able to see what I saw in my head, and I quickly realized that drawing pictures to go along with my gaming sessions satiated this fun new hunger I’d found inside me.
I continued drawing every chance I got throughout my adolescence, and eventually started buying comic books and fantasy magazines just so I could copy the art on the covers. Artists like Todd McFarlane and Todd Lockwood were huge inspirations to me as a kid, and their art helped shape the way I did my own art. In middle and high-school I would often draw during class while listening to the teacher’s lecture. At the end of the class, I’d often go to throw the picture away but was usually stopped by one of my classmates who’d been watching me draw the entire class and couldn’t believe I was about to throw all that hard work away in the trash! They’d ask if they could have the picture and of course I’d give it to them, and it didn’t take long before I was known as an artist. I’ve always loved being creative, and that love seems to grow as I get older.
One would probably assume that when I decided to go to college, I’d major in, perhaps, animation, computer graphics, maybe even painting … but no. Because I’ve always loved thinking creatively, and because I’d always loved movies, (who doesn’t?), I decided I’d major in Film/Television. I chose to attend Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) because, not only were they a great fine arts school but they also had a great film department.
I loved college, and I was lucky enough to take some great courses with some truly brilliant professors. I received a good education, and after graduating I spent some time working in the film industry. It didn’t take long, though, for me to realize that making movies “for real” wasn’t quite the same as making movies as part of a college course. I decided it wasn’t for me, and I moved on.
Now, if this were a perfect story, I’d tell you that I immediately fell back on my old passion for the arts and that I began painting and haven’t stopped since. But this isn’t a perfect story, it’s a real one, and what happened next is that the creation of art took a back seat for many years. I didn’t practice consistently, and when I did it was rarely a painting. I did have a period in my twenties where I began a series of cartoonish portraits that I worked on sporadically for a couple of years, (they were cool and I’ll probably come back to them someday), but most of my creative output was geared toward songwriting and playing guitar, which are both creative pursuits I still enjoy.
It wasn’t until years later, in my early 30s, that fate landed me in a career that was almost hand-made for a person like me. For the last decade, I’ve worked as a vocational rehabilitation specialist for a company called Therapeutic Rehabilitation. We provide vocational rehab to survivors of traumatic brain injury, and one of the big ways we provide training and therapy to our clients is through the creation of artwork. I was put in charge of a fully stocked Art department, and over the years I’ve evolved along with my clients as both a person and an artist.
For about a year during the pandemic we switched to providing telehealth, and at that time I decided to start teaching my clients about art history to keep things interesting. Once we returned to work, we decided to continue providing this education, and that led to us creating works of art in the styles of the various movements and the artists who created them. While putting together a lesson on Impressionism a few years back, I was reminded how much I love the style. That’s when it hit me that I should buy canvases and start painting, and since then I haven’t stopped.
I did my first art show in the late summer of 2023, Arts, Beats and Eats in Royal Oak Michigan, and I’ve been painting as much as possible to continue doing more shows in the future.
In addition to the art stuff, I got married in the summer of 2015 to my beautiful wife Leslie. We have two young sons, Denver and Hudson, and they are at the center of everything we do. In fact, it’s a near guarantee that at least a couple of the dabs of paint on each painting I do came from my son Denver who begged me “just let me do a couple dabs!”
In addition to painting landscapes, I enjoy making a variety of different kinds of art projects. We accept custom orders at Therapeutic Rehab, and over years I’ve helped create hundreds of various art pieces. One of my favorite styles is Geometric Abstract, creating minimalist designs that let the colors stand out in truly glorious fashion. I’m sure that some of those pieces will pop up on my site from time to time.
Anyhow, I’m super excited for this next phase of my life. I truly live for being creative; it’s what brings me joy and it’s what I’m passionate about. I also love sharing the things I’ve learned, and I’m always open to talking to, or sharing ideas with anyone who wants to chat.