In the 1980’s Ryan was involved in textile design as a weaver and art to wear clothing designer. In the late 80’s her work moved into printing and machine embroidery on fabric and then into more traditional printmaking on paper.

Ryan’s more personal imagery began to emerge as she became involved in printmaking where she spent several years exploring the layering of transparent colors in multi plate monotypes and later in the creation of collagraphs.

Ryan began painting in 1994 in a search for a more direct and spontaneous expression of her ideas. She has worked in acrylic on paper and canvas, and for the last 7 years in oil on canvas and wooden panels. Her continuing interest in creating rich surfaces has also led her to paint with encaustic.

Ryan creates expressionistic figurative work and complex abstracted forms in her paintings. Her work is known for its imaginative subject matter and colorful, painterly surfaces.

Ryan maintains a studio at the Torpedo Factory Art Center, teaches at The Art League School in Alexandria, VA and is an adjunct professor in the Art Department at Montgomery College in Germantown, MD.