Daily Inspiration: Meet Ryan Sleep

Today we’d like to introduce you to Ryan Sleep.

Ryan, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
Everything is an illusion, and it’s my mission to remind you. Most people would call me a street artist, and they wouldn’t be wrong, but I’d rather be known as a conceptual artist. Ideas are the most powerful and versatile medium I’m aware of. My alias is SLEEP IS FAMOUS.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back, would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
My biggest challenge every day is dealing with my own idiosyncrasies. I’m an aspiring optimist. Wanting to change the world but knowing I probably can’t do it. But I am telling myself that the only way to do it is to believe that I can. But simultaneously doubting that belief.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
My early creative pursuits as an adult mostly involved street photography. Walking the streets with a digital SLR camera, looking for shots, was an almost daily activity. It was on these photo walks that I discovered and became intrigued by public art. Whether graffiti, flyers, stickers, signage, or “found art,” I was collaborating with the city to produce interesting images and perspectives using the art that I saw on the street. I had been working with a rough line drawing of a TV with legs and the word “Sleep” scrawled across the screen. The image was a response to my own personal struggle with motivation, and the first public expression of that idea was in the form of hand-drawn matchbooks that I would leave around town for people to find. I figured that something useful like matches had a good chance of being picked up and saved.

It wasn’t until I had the design printed on stickers, however, that the concept really began to take root. 10 years and more than 100,000 repetitions later, the Sleep project is recognized around the world, and has been included in fine art exhibitions in Austin, New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Seattle, London, Berlin, Rome and more. Now I screen print all my own stickers in my home studio, along with fine art prints and apparel. More recently, I’ve been focused on mixed media artworks on canvas. My goal is to continue to spread the Sleep imagery to new mediums, more cities, walls and galleries. Look for my work at sleepisfamous.com, on Instagram (@sleepisfamous), or on the streets.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.sleepisfamous.com
• Instagram: @sleepisfamous