Ryan Barnes is a visual artist who specializes in painting, drawing, illustrations, and graphic arts with an eclectic educational background in the arts and communication. He has an Associates in Visual Arts (Skagit Valley College, 2025), a Diploma in Public Affairs (DINFOS, 2019), a Certificate in Electronic Journalism (DINFOS, 2019), a Bachelor’s in Digital Cinematography (Full Sail University, 2018), and an Associates in Multimedia & Interactive Technology.
Barnes seeks to connect with his audience through visual arts and storytelling. He takes inspiration from his own life experiences, his culture, and stories both in the real world as well as myths and legends. His technique is a collage of elements from animation, comics, and the pop art movement. Often you will see a stylistic theme of making digital artwork look like it was made traditionally and traditional are look like they are flat or printed.
While art and creativity played significant roles throughout Barnes’ life, non was more significant when during a dark period of his career enlisted in the US Army, he dived back into making art every weekend while stationed in Grafenwöhr, Germany. Sitting alone in his barracks with a bottle of wine and large pepperoni pizza, Barnes would sketch, draw, and paint while watching “Let’s Draw” videos and streaming movies. One day, he saw a call to artist flyer from the Morale Welfare and Recreation to have their work exhibited at the local Annamarie & Annafest in 2019. He submitted some of the paintings he made and saw them on display in public. This was a significant push that he needed to take his art more seriously and turn it into a career. Every day since then, Barnes has been taking his art and career to the next stage after stage after stage.
Barnes has had his work exhibited at the aforementioned fair, a juried art show at Skagit Valley College, and on a Veteran’s Day board at Skagit Valley College featuring the photographs he took when he as an Active Duty Soldier. Barnes’s piece Flowers in a Coke Glass had won first place at the juried art show at Skagit Valley College and has earned a Joint Service Achievement Medal for his hard work as a photographer and videographer for the US Army.
