Artist Interview: Mai Ryuno
We're so very pleased to introduce our newest Artist Interview with the amazing Mai Ryuno of Play Full Ground! Mai embodies creativity in all of her endeavors, from her social art practice, to her business, to her work as an educator, and to her life in general! We were so thrilled to have Mai at our LiveArt last year, and look forward to having her back when we aren't sheltering in place! Find out more about Mai's art studio and business online at playfullground.com on Instagram at @playfullground or on Facebook at facebook.com/playfullground/
Tell us about the subject matter/content of your work.
My work is about people, community, andcollaboration. I care deeply for communities and seek to find new ways to usecreativity to engage them, build stronger bonds, and explore artistic practiceand experience.
Tell us about how you work/your process.
As a social practice artist, I look at thecommunity as a creative studio. There I receive inspiration, think of ideas,play and experiment with materials, which include people, natural and builtenvironment, history and culture in the community and create art. My creativeprocess is concept driven, process oriented, and playful. I use a combinationof traditional and non-traditional media such as printmaking, textile, food,etc. It is also important for me tothink deeply and create playfully. As a result, I create delightful,reflective, colorful and playful artwork, which often involves the audience’sparticipation in completion of the work as well.
What medium(s) do you work with?
My original art background is printmaking;however, I have also used food, sea water, waves, rain, and recycled materials,etc. to make my art. Recently, I use textile to sew dresses and softsculptures, and do performances for which I use my own body as a medium, too.
About how many hours/day/week do you work?
Pretty much all the time. I try to spend timein my studio anytime except for the time I teach (and eat/sleep). Even though Iam not in my studio making art, I am always thinking of ideas for next creativeprojects.
How do you navigate the art world?
I am not sure if I am navigating the artworld well, but I am always looking for a meaning/purpose to be in this world.I am pretty good at finding ways to be creative in things that I do may notseem to be related to “making art”, and for me, it is more fulfilling to becreative in various capacities than to just make art. I can easily get tired ofdoing the same thing over and over, so having an ownership to take action andmake changes in the process of creating both my art and life is a great reasonto be an artist who navigates the world with creativity. (although it certainlycomes with a lot of struggles, too…)
What is your definition of success?
Success for me is that I become a catalyst for individual’s discovery of creative abilities and collective use of them for a healthy, resilient, and vibrant community. Not everyone may recognize themselves as an artist; however, everyone has creativity within them. I would like creativity to be recognized as an essential human functionality, not something that is only entitled to artists. If I can inspire people to think and act with confidence for their creative capabilities with which we collaboratively make the community good for all, that will be my definition of success.
What inspires you? What do you read, listen to, look at, watch, eat, smell…?
Life is full of inspirations. I learned theprocess oriented and participatory art practice from books like John Dewey’sArt as Experience and Nicolas Bourriaud’s Relational Aesthetics. Sir.KenRobinson’s “Do Schools Kill Creativity?” TED talk and his books about creativeeducation are inspiring for me as a creative educator. Anything/anyone, whetheror not it is famous, that bridges between creativity and life inspires me. Andalso, conversations with people and their real stories are inspiring - I enjoywatching and reading documentaries more than fairytales, I think. Love sharingfood, drinks, stories, and memories with others, too!
What else would you do if you weren’t an artist (or what do you do when you aren’t making art)?
I would still try to have a creative life ingeneral. I may be an artist in a context of contemporary art; however I may notlook like an artist in a traditional/more commonly understood way. I have seenpeople perplexed when they ask me if I paint after I say that I make/do art andreceive my answers that they can’t easily associate to art: social practice,process, experience as art, what? Is it art? I don’t have clear borders betweenart and anything else that I do in my life, so it is hard to think what else Iwould do besides art… maybe nothing.
What are you working on now?
My social and creative entrepreneurship, PlayFull Ground (PFG). It is a hybrid of a social practice art studio and businessin Monterey. I found that doing a business is a creative project like my otherart projects, which I enjoy doing and learn from except for dealing withnumbers… Also, in the time of the shelter in place order/social distancing, Idecided to do something playful daily and share cheerful moments with othersonline. I have played games like music chairs, a tug of war, and arm wrestlingwith PFG’s colorful sardine pillows at the studio and home and posted videos onInstagram.
How do you get yourself through dry spells, self-esteem fluctuations, deep shyness, general low periods, inertia?
I think that it is ok not to be always so confident, productive, and active. When I was a teen, I spent a lot of time and did a lot of things in bed: eating, watching TV, doing homework, etc. At one point, my mother thought that I had some type of illness. I was probably depressed, but depression was not a subject for people’s normal conversation in Japan then. So, she was wondering what was going on with me. I don’t remember how long it lasted, maybe a year or so(?). The time is gone now, but I still enjoy spending sometime indoor/in bed and taking a nap with our cat Taiyo without seeing people and doing anything special. I think that it is totally normal to have ups and downs in our mood with/out reasons, yet I will seek others for help if I can’t take it all by myself.
Tell us about your education and background. Self taught? Mentors? Art college? Lessons? Internet? Combo?
I moved to Monterey from my hometown Fukuoka,Japan after completing my undergraduate degree in English at DoshishaUniversity in Kyoto to attend Monterey Peninsula College as an internationalstudent in art department. After taking art classes at MPC for a few years, Imoved to San Francisco to go to a graduate school at San Francisco ArtInstitute where I received my MFA in printmaking. Also, teaching is learningand my current work as a teacher has given me the opportunity of learning aboutart both conceptually and technically for and from my students.
Any feedback on the value of YAC.
It is a wonderful resource for young peoplein the community to meet like-minded people, practice art, and find their ownway of expressing themselves; I am jealous! I used to work/teach in YoungArtist and PreCollege Programs at San Francisco Art Institute and met a lot ofcreative youth who should be the heart of a creative community now and in thefuture! I was super happy when my former student at Hartnell asked me to writea letter of recommendation to join YAC and become a YACster!
