Collapse #5

jay learned to screenprint beginning in 1995, working under steve walters at screwball press. jay printed posters for his own band (dianogah), his friends' bands, and the clubs they played at. slowly, work from other clubs and other bands came in. in 1999, jay started the bird machine print shop in the basement of his apartment building, and soon hired mat daly to help with the printing responsibilities. mat worked with jay until the end of 2007. in 2002, the bird machine moved to proper commercial space in chicago's ravenswood neighborhood, during which time the national poster community really took off, as reflected by jay's constant travel, showing posters and talking to students around the country. during this time, the crew of people working around the shop included diana sudyka, nick butcher, dan grzeca, kevin duneman, nadine nakanishi, sue demel, alana bailey, jack ryan, and, of course, mat daly. in 2007, the bird machine moved a final time, to a small building in skokie, a near-north suburb bordering chicago, where the print shop runs now. Rotofugi Designer Toy Store & Gallery, established in July 2004, is located on the border of Chicago's Lincoln Park and Lakeview neighborhoods in a beautiful vintage building. Since opening, Rotofugi has grown to become one of the world's premier sellers of designer toys from artists all over the world. Rotofugi features a diverse selection of vinyl figures, capsule toys, plush and more from both eastern and western designers. The adjoining Rotofugi Gallery features monthly art exhibits by a range of both local and nationally known artists. Beginning in late 2007 Rotofugi partnered with Chicago based product development specialist Squibbles Ink to begin producing artist-designed figures by the talented designers located in their home town. Click here for more information on Squibbles Ink + Rotofugi projects. Rotofugi is owned and operated by husband and wife duo Kirby and Whitney Kerr. You can find the couple in and around the store on most days. They love to talk about toys and art. Acrylic paint is fast drying paint containing pigment suspension in acrylic polymer emulsion. Acrylic paints can be diluted with water, but become water-resistant when dry. Depending on how much the paint is diluted (with water) or modified with acrylic gels, media, or pastes, the finished acrylic painting can resemble a watercolor or an oil painting, or have its own unique characteristics not attainable with other media. Those of you that attend our exhibits (or view them from afar) often probably know that I'm usually not one to expound or comment on the art in our gallery. It's just not my style. I'd like to think that the art we exhibit stands on it's own merits, without a need for explanation, and that is certainly true for Jay Ryan's work in this exhibit. But I just can't help but to throw a small amount of extra praise at Jay for these paintings right now because, frankly, these works move me. All painted in the first four and a half months of 2011, the works in Trouble are, to me, best understood in the context of the circumstances they were painted under...you see, Jay is a new father. Recent disasters in New Zealand, Japan and the United States obvoiusly touched a nerve in Jay. The result is this exhibit of 17 paintings depicting not only disaster, panic and danger but also love, devotion and protection. I don't have children myself, but I find Jay's obvious love for his new daughter, juxtaposed against the horrific natural disasters that the titles hint at, to be inspirational. Yes, a lot of the art we exhibit