Artist from birth

Wearing tight, dark clothing with jet black hair across his face and a pierced lip, multiple demonic rings on his hands only add to the style that exudes from the art of 25-year-old Ryan Aleister Merrick.

Merrick is in his first semester at Pierce and is here to learn video editing and audio recording to help him on his way into the job market as a photographer and videographer.

The artist/musician said that he has always been attracted to the darker metaphysical world.

“I just found this folder of my preschool drawings the other day and it’s all monsters and demons,” said Merrick. “I’ve been pretty dark since I was a kid.”

Working with pencil and ink drawings his childhood interests grew from monsters to extraterrestrials

“I learned anatomy, learned perspective, learned how to put detail into everything that came out of my mind” said Merrick.

His biggest influence is H.R. Giger, who is most commonly know for his work on the 1980’s film “Alien”, he said.

After graduating from Agoura Hills Highschool, Merrick attended the Art Institute of California, Los Angeles (AIC), from 2005 to 2008.

“They have some of the best people in the industry at the art school but they can’t teach” said Merrick.

Merrick has displayed his art in a couple of college art galleries, which now include work with paint on canvas and sculptures, and expressed interest in getting his artwork into a gallery somewhere in Los Angeles.

Merrick has been doing work as a photographer and making video’s for a couple years, he said. He has had several job offers but hasn’t gotten hired because he doesn’t have experience with Final Cut Pro, a commonly used video editing program.

The school system at AIC did not allow students to take classes outside of their major, so Merrick never had the opportunity to explore the fields of video and audio recording and editing.

That’s why Merrick decided to come to Pierce.

“Here the teachers genuinely care about teaching you, they will sit down and explain it to me until I don’t have any more questions,” said Merrick.

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