Jonathan Ryan Storm: Time Was a River, Too

Jonathan Ryan Storm is a Vermont-based artist working in both paint and textiles. He creates undulating compositions that simultaneously trick and soothe the eye. Storm works intuitively, following his hand through the flow state of painting or the mesmerizing motion of sewing. He creates a covert path in these winding works where the viewer can find inlets and guided turns, or they can experience them as a whole, as a wash of sensation. Storm says his work “doesn’t tell a story, nor is it static. It has a life of its own.”

Storm strives to make a direct connection to the senses: not only to the obvious element of sight (though it may surprise viewers to learn that Storm is colorblind), but also to the body, through a vibrating, physical resonance, and to aural phenomena. This last aspect comes through in many of his titles, such as Carillon Call, a repeated hammering of bells, or Tensor Tympanic, a reference to the small muscle in the middle ear that reduces loud sounds. Each artwork swells and sways through the eyes, ears, and body.

Being on the autism spectrum, Storm has a self-described “obsession” with rhythm, repetition, and automatic movements. What feels compelling and soothing for him is similarly experienced by the viewer. His colors and patterns have the effect of dimming thought and amplifying feeling and intuition. Like dominos, the individual components of each piece push and pull on each other, appearing convex or concave as viewers move by the canvas. The work emanates outward, like waves growing stronger as they collide and expand.