Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Ryan Heimbach. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Ryan, so great to be with you and I think a lot of folks are going to benefit from hearing your story and lessons and wisdom. Imposter Syndrome is something that we know how words to describe, but it’s something that has held people back forever and so we’re really interested to hear about your story and how you overcame imposter syndrome.
Imposter syndrome can be very detrimental for any artist or anyone in their career. It can sometimes rear its ugly head up from time to time for me and I try to lean on my fellow artist friends that I know will give me an honest opinion about the matter. Find someone or some people that can constructively give you feedback on the matter of imposter syndrome, whether that be a mentor, colleague, or trusted friend. If they do say you are an imposter then you need to dig deep into you own mind and work you’ve created to see if what they are saying is true and if you believe them.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
Art has been my main focus for over 15 years now, whether it’s working on my own stuff or assisting other artists with big projects. I have been absorbing every little bit of knowledge from my mentors and fellow artists. I am fortunate enough to have people around me that specialize in so many different forms of art. For example painting, sculpture, film, and photography to name a few.
Currently I am exploring painting, specifically oil painting and using colors rather than black and white which I had mainly done in the past. On top of that I am also playing around with revisiting some of my older series of work which I call wrinkled charcoal drawings. The series involves me doing a charcoal drawing over wrinkles paper. The wrinkles are confined within the portrait or image that is being drawn. The end result gives the charcoal drawing a textured and sculptural look to it.
I have a separate instagram page where I feature just my charcoal pieces and you can see them here @rhcharcoal. My website www.ryanartwork.com has a more refined/polished view of my work with a short bio and some behind the scenes photos.
As for future projects I have a few ideas I am still processing and ironing the details out so stay tuned and follow me on my main instagram page @ryanartwork that shows most of my creative process.
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
Three most important qualities or skills to have are constantly creating, to have curiosity, and to always be experimenting.
When any of these are lacking is when your creative process can slow down or even come to a halt. Creating, curiosity, and experimenting all feed into the flow state. As steriotypical as that sounds all creative people want to be in the flow state. Once you can learn how to get into that mindset the time spent creating can fly by. Now getting in and out of that state of mind is something that needs to practiced as often as possible and become second nature.
If being an artist is something you are passionate about and want to do as a main source of income then it needs to become a healthy obsession with those three skills. Another honorable mention for a good skill to have is to document your ideas. Whether that is a note book, voice memo, or any type of way to keep a record of your ideas, because you never know when you want to follow through with it or if it could inspire something even more exciting.
All the wisdom you’ve shared today is sincerely appreciated. Before we go, can you tell us about the main challenge you are currently facing?
The big challenge that I am currently facing is wanting to be more consistent with my own art. During the weekdays I work with and assist an artist by the name of Andrew Myers. So when the day is over and I have finished taking care of my two kids it’s very hard to find the energy and sometimes the motivation to create my own work. I have been trying to have my work area set up to be as seamless as possible so I don’t even have to second guess if I should start working on my own art or not. Like I mentioned before the act of constantly creating is something I have struggled with and I know many other artist do as well.
I feel the main part of the battle is just show up to your work space and start making something even if it’s something you know won’t be a keepable piece. Sometimes you need to shake off the cobwebs of a routine of consuming (social media, tv, etc.) and start creating which could be as simple as drawing stick figures just to get your mind on the track of creating.
If this is something you are struggling with then just take baby steps into creating again. Don’t try to make your next masterpiece right of the bat if you feel stuck, because that can be an overwhelming task.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.ryanartwork.com
- Instagram: @ryanartwork @rhcharcoal
so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
