When the pandemic turned the entertainment world as we once knew it upside down, shuttering theaters and stages and making gatherings of all kinds suddenly dangerous and undesirable, artists had to find new ways to express themselves, and the more resourceful survivors among us took interesting turns, delving into new media entirely to satisfy the very real need to create, to inspire, to share and to thrill. Ryan Landry took a lifetime of live-entertainment and began painting, allowing for a different sort of visual expression that managed to be just as scintillating, with the same wink and wit for which his stage shows were so rightly renowned and revered. Far from letting COVID conquer him or his spirit, he simply regrouped and reinvented himself, and not for the first time.
Born in California, Landry cut his artistic fangs and danced with his personal demons in New York and Miami, before finding key inspiration in New Orleans, Boston and Provincetown, and his Warholian personality is a gleeful amalgamation of all those places. I remember when I first moved to Boston in 1995, he and his troop of Gold Dust Orphans were embarking on the start of a multi-decade run as one of the most fascinating and raw theater troupes the world has ever been blessed to witness, and in the ensuing years when I moved out of Boston I’d still get notice and watch gleefully from afar the announcements for their annual productions.
While painting in Provincetown currently occupies his time and talent, one gets the feeling that there are more chapters yet to be written, that Landry is merely biding his time for more spectacular moments in a lifetime and career of sparkling highlights. These days he has distilled the creative restlessness that drove him for so many years into a more calm entity, one that has found a certain peace from the torments that haunt so many artistic souls. The best part is that he is all the more fascinating for it, as illustrated in a recent birthday post which I am posting here. Because it exemplifies the hard-won wisdom that some of us still seek to find. Today, Ryan Landry is named the Dazzler of the Day for all these reasons and more. {For additional enchantment, and to follow where this colorful road may lead, visit his website at www.ryanlandryfactory.com.}
THE BIRTHDAY PRESENT by Ryan Landry
It’s been a long, hard road but I can now truly say that I have finally reached that strange age where I may indeed be “happy”. (Crowd gasps and so do I.) Where life was once a popularity contest I no longer feel the need to get my name on the ballot. Dumb remarks from strangers (and sometimes even friends!) that once cut me to the bone are now simply met with a bemused, yet sincere smile. A semi-sad reminder that this person (no matter how long the relationship) may have never taken the opportunity to get to know someone that I can personally say I’m pretty fond of… Me!
Is this what it’s like to feel “secure”?
Once I gathered others around me for selfish reasons, (mostly for shelter) clinging to them for dear life. I am now able to stop, look them straight in the eye and let go. They are free to leave the circle and the real joy comes from watching them come back.
In short I know myself now. Fully. I say this because I have been enormously insecure for most of my life. A crippling insecurity that has unfortunately kept me from enjoying and appreciating so many wonders that life shows only to those with open eyes. There are things that I would change about myself physically of course. (God knows I should exercise more and I am calling on the Gods to help in this quest! lol) But inside… I want so badly to explain it to you….
If you are young and still going through all the drama that THAT entails I would like to pass on a little something if I might. Allow me to share with you this gentle joy I now know. It’s a tiny comfort, a small but mighty strength that I hold in my heart today. I guess when you get right down to it, the bottom line, the very core of life is nothing more than a cliche and that’s probably because it’s true. This “secret to happiness” is nothing more than passing by a mirror on your way out the door, suddenly stopping as if by an unseen hand, turning your head to your own reflection and watching as the shape of a smile comes from God knows where and cleanses your face.
It’s that pure, almost holy smile that you get from knowing without a doubt that you are loved.
Thank you all for the kindness and love you have shown me.
I promise it will not go to waste. xxx ~ Ryan
