Ryan McGuire Spotlight
Ryan McGuire
Written by Nor Osborne, June 2025
If you’ve ever ventured into Granville, you might have driven past a monster truck. Not a ginormous, revving stunt truck that might come to mind, but a truck shaped like an actual monster. Sitting behind the wheel of this bright yellow truck with purple spots, googly eyes, and bright white teeth is Ryan McGuire, the artist who turned his Ford F150 into this silly creature.
With a brightly colored propellor cap on his head and bells wrapped around his feet, Ryan elects not to take himself too seriously.
“I’ve always had this desire to make everybody laugh,” Ryan says. “I was a class clown in school and most of my art is really whimsical.”
Most of Ryan’s projects are public displays of art, such as the 26 foot mural he painted in Grinnell, Iowa depicting a T-Rex struggling to brush his teeth, with tiny arms struggling to reach his mouth and the Banana-pillar, a huge yellow sculpture he crafted to look like a banana with spider legs in Ithaca, New York. Additionally, Ryan was the visionary behind the Smile Phone on E Broadway St in downtown Granville, an abandoned phone booth he transformed into a bright yellow, solar powered phone that offers positive messages to listeners.
The majority of Ryan’s work is done for free for cities and libraries.
“Those kinds of projects reach so many more people than paintings in galleries. Only people that go to that gallery and then the person who buys it sees it,” Ryan explains. “But, making mobile public art, or turning art into a vehicle, that takes public art to the next level.”
Alongside his monster truck, Ryan has transformed a Volkswagen Super Beetle into a spiky green dinosaur. He has also created three different spaceship cars, and even a spaceship school bus in a collaboration with the physics department at Cornell University.
“My goal in life isn't to make fine art. My goal is to have people just smile and be happy for a second with art, and then hopefully inspire other people,” Ryan says.
Ryan is not a trained artist. Besides once taking a welding class, all of his art is created through trial and error.
“I’m really good at just kind of taking nothing and then turning it into something,” Ryan laughs. “I have this desire to show I can do more with less.”
Ryan has followed this motto for all of his career ventures, even prior to his art.
“I never went to college, but I’ve done a lot of crazy things. I’ve had multiple proper careers and made lots of money at certain points in my life,” Ryan says.
Ryan’s first career after high school was with the insurance company American International Group. Even though he didn’t have the bachelor’s degree the position required, he interviewed so well that he was hired. Ryan quickly moved into a supervisory position for the international Fortune 500 company, but when he was offered another promotion, he decided he wanted to try something new.
True to his word, Ryan has tried many new “somethings”. He has served as the marketing director for the IT Company Sherpa Technologies, founded the quirky and free stock image site Gratisography, created the design company Bells Design, and started a small coffee roastery Bella’s Beans.
These ventures have helped Ryan fund his latest project, the Granville Center for the Arts. Ryan has been running this community gallery alongside Kim Keethler Ball since April of 2023. The community center offers a wide variety of free artistic events and experiences for anyone interested. They host sunset yoga and sound baths, open mic nights, book launches, art making workshops, dance classes, and concerts. Exhibits are featured within the gallery, showcasing new Ohio-based artists every few months. The center holds a broad array of monthly clubs as well, from improv to irish music and jewelry making to creative writing.
“I use art as a community building tool, as a means of connecting people. Everything I try to do is to invite other people to experience the arts,” Ryan notes. “It’s the one medium that allows people, no matter who they are or where they’re from, to see each other. It's a universal language.”
Unlike a majority of cultural centers, the Granville Center for the Arts flourishes without aid from the government or large donors. They’re funded entirely on small gifts from individuals who believe in their work and their mission.
“We don’t ask visitors for donations. I want them to experience the arts and the events, and if they’re inspired afterwards to support us, that's great. We’re made by the community for the community.”
“People are kind of dumbfounded that we've had over 350 events in the 2 years we’ve been open without any major funders. It's all made through the community,” Ryan reflects. “They don’t understand how it’s possible, but it’s how everything in my life has worked. The more you do, the more you connect, and you can create a community around you.”
