Odorifous: Bill Ryder-Jones

Bill Ryder-Jones illustration by Troy DeShano — Illustration by Troy DeShano

Yesterday I posted a few thoughts on Bill Ryder-Jones’s new album If… and honestly since then I’ve listened to it at least 3 times. I was so excited when Bill agreed to do this little interview because based on the integrity of his work i guessed that if nothing else, he’d be honest.

And honesty is really what I’m hoping for in each of these interviews.

I’ve never had an interview I’ve wanted so badly to pick apart and analyze. Bill submitted his responses so quickly and with such candor that I can’t imagine he invested too much of his own time on this, yet he manages to express several thoughts I find entirely compelling.

Scott Sherman ripping a Niner Air9 on Kestle Run in Fruita, CO.

As part of my inner-circle camping buddies (and so much more) over the years T.C. has inspired me—not to do something I don’t already—but to never give up on our greatest shared values.

Do what you love.
Collaborate.
Get off your butt.

When young photographers (which is anyone with a Canon Rebel these days, right?) see the amazing work that T.C. is doing – mountaineering in the Alps, mtn. biking in the west and testing adventure gear around the world with Gear Junkie (this year alone he shot work in Chilean Patagonia, Germany, Alaska, Switzerland, not to mention from the Catskills to the Rockies…. ) they think “this is the work I’m going to do, he has the best job ever!!”

So they set up their Facebook page and wait.

What is quickly becoming a shocking number of years ago I was a freshman at one of the strangest universities in the west wandering sheepishly around the world’s largest cafeteria clutching my overloaded tray and trying to maintain some composure because you know how I get around lunch (agog).

If I’d been in a movie the camera would be panning 360° around me..

Just then a new friend resolved the dissonance in the score, grabbed me by the shoulders and swooped me to a table of misfit ladies where I met my wife for the very first time.

But among those ladies was another special misfit who played a very important party in our story.

At first glace Von Glitchka’s work might not seem so special… but (though this is a bit hard to explain) that is exactly what makes him such a master. Great design should after all, be “invisible.”

Sometime last year I had just a hint of an idea that involved taking my designs and photographing them to give it a little dimensional feel. I think the idea came when I was maxing out my photoshop skills to make client photos respectable for their print pieces. I come up with about a dozen new ideas each day though, so this one like most others came and went and was buried in my mental rolltop where all the clutter is stored.

Around that same time Ward Jenkins posted a few photos on Facebook of one of his favorite artists – Tom Allen.

reindeer_troy — Reindeer by Lisa Congdon

Lisa Congdon is inspiring to me because (like me) she’s a self-taught artist—no fancy art school, no grad school connections with whom to jump-start careers—and didn’t start working as an artist until she was in her thirties.

She’s one of those people that give the self-taught, mid-thirties, bible-college-grad like me a bit of hope for this “career” I’m working on.

Because I have a tendency to want to do everything NOW.

On my last night in Kenya last February the team was invited to the national director’s home to meet his family. It was quite an experience considering he and his wife currently have 19 children they’ve adopted (or merely taken in) living at home right now..

Just prior to the kids sending us off with a staircase seranade (imagine the Von Trapps were from east Africa) I happened to notice a painting hanging in the family dining room.

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Odorifous: Bill Ryder-Jones

Odorifous: T.C. Worley

Odorifous: Mollie Greene

Odorifous: Von Glitchka

Odorifous: Thomas Allen

Odorifous: Lisa Congdon

Odorifous: Edward Orato