Published on November 02, 2021

Ryan Carpenter

Tethered, Pen on paper, 2020

Ryan Carpenter was an artist prior to entering prison, but it was in prison that his work, and his work ethic, really blossomed. His drawings are made in pen with a confident hand, cleanly comprised of thousands of lines and markings: bark, branches, blades of grass, leaves, bricks, and bones build a desolate world. A cast of characters (perhaps all aspects of himself?) play out an ongoing, evolving, and devolving story of loss, discovery, connection and disconnection. Paths are built and paths are destroyed. The decaying hulks of mammoth robots loom over everything – a reminder (to himself?) that a different, magical, world once existed. Muzzled dogs act alternately as a menace or witness. The artist is working through his past, building a present, and trying to divine a possible future through, and in, his artwork. Ryan Carpenter was released from prison 2½ years ago, and presently has a huge 5’ x 7’ drawing on view at The Mark Twain House in Hartford.