BURNING LOVE

By ELENA JOHNSON

Press Correspondent

HAYDEN — What do you get when you cross a fisherman with a penchant for wood-working?

You get local pyrographic artist Ryan Allen.

Allen, who is showing a variety of his work this weekend at Fine Brewed on Sherman, says he got into woodburning (pyrography) by making and decorating longboards for extra money while attending Boise State University.

“I sold them for next to nothing to friends. I was just kind of skating by,” he said.

The artist has had little formal art training. In fact, he went to BSU to study history.

He inherited his abilities for woodworking from his father, Dave, who worked as a carpenter specializing in custom entry doors and once built a longboard for the younger artist.

As for soldering (the act of burning designs into the wood), Ryan already had the relevant skills. Much of his work is drawn freehand, with little to no preliminary marks to block out the composition beforehand.

“I haven’t had to trace in maybe nine years,” he said. “I’ve always been a drawer.”

Allen works prolifically, and it shows in his home, which is covered with his work and that of fellow artist/roommate Eric Hornby. It also shows in the death count of his soldering irons.

“I go through these things like crazy,” he said with a laugh. “I just went through one in like a week.”

Fortunately for Allen, he says the cheapest irons yield the bold lines he prefers for his work.

“My main goal is to play with the wood grains as a medium,” he explained, demonstrating where he solders over the lines to create realistic bark in trees or clouds in a sky.

“A cloudy sky is already in it,” he pointed out in his unfinished work of a Grand Tetons landscape in early spring.

Although he considers that line work to be signature to his style, he realized early in his longboard-making that color was missing.

He now uses acrylic paint with Sharpie paint pens to add dynamism to much of his work. He says the effect of blending the two can create a “reflective” or shimmery quality, creating different effects from different perspectives.

In the Tetons piece, Allen described how he laid out the background color of the cloudy sky by mixing water and paint.

He purchases the wood from a local hardware store in large sheets measuring about 60 square inches.

While he has long since branched out from longboards, he still makes them for his NOHO (NOrth IdaHO) Board Co. He does woodburning on flat pieces of wood. Since he began focusing more on fine art in the last four years, he has also done more painting-based work.

He even makes his own grip tape for the boards, using a finish to protect the wood and paint as well as Hawaiian sand.

Although the sand was purchased, there is another connection. His early childhood was spent in Pearl Harbor, where his father was stationed in the Navy.

But don’t expect an Aloha.

“I’m more of an Idahoan,” he said. “I’m a local boy.”

The local landscape and his time outside fishing features heavily in his work.

“It’s one of the more beautiful parts of the country. It’s hard not to draw inspiration from that,” he said.

“I love being out on the river. That’s probably where I get a lot of my ideas — out fly fishing,” he said, noting that a large proportion of his early work was fish-focused.

Although he says fishing is his life, there’s more to the artist and river-guide. Allen coaches wrestling at Woodland Middle School and Lake City High School. He has taught at Lakes Middle School and said he’ll likely go back to teaching in the future.

This weekend, however, is about art.

Allen’s work has been displayed at Fine Brewed for about two years, according to Nick Leonard, owner of the coffee shop and longtime friend to Allen.

“I love it. It’s super unique that he’s doing the woodburning process, the unique framing …” said Leonard. “It really embodies the Pacific Northwest and what we’re about here.”

Leonard also said Allen has been regularly contributing to the shop’s nonprofit, Camp Journey, which raises money to send children with cancer in the Pacific Northwest to camp for a week.

Allen will be present at Fine Brewed, 507 E. Sherman Ave., during the show from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. today and until 6 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.

“I’ll be there burning live and meeting people the whole time,” he said.

The artist also mentioned much of his work will be discounted for the show and the full body of work will remain up for at least a week.

For more of Allen’s work or to ask about a commission, visit his website nohoboardco.com or Instagram page @noho_boardco, where he posts updates on his work. Or contact him at [email protected].