By Pam Hersh
Princeton resident Ryan Stark Lilienthal is in a tug of war, with himself. The combatants are: his avocation of being a painter versus his vocation of being an immigration attorney.
He has competing websites, containing competing bios.
The attorney Ryan Lilienthal got his J.D. from Brooklyn Law School, where he was a member of the “Brooklyn Law Review.” The artist Ryan Lilienthal studied drawing, painting and sculpture at the Boston Museum School in Massachusetts, and he apprenticed at the SoHo studios of Siri Berg, whose paintings are part of the permanent collection at the Guggenheim and other museums.
Ryan’s office spaces include a law office on Mapleton Road in Plainsboro, and an art studio at the Princeton Academy on the Great Road. The result of being pulled in two directions — three if one counts his role as a husband and father — is the opposite of angst-filled conflict. Rather, for Ryan, it is a joyful exercise of time management.
”I am very lucky to have found essentially two careers that are equally fulfilling,” he said. And if one day his artistic endeavors show real promise of becoming fiscally sustainable, the avocation/vocation classification may switch. “But I never will stop thinking about how to help those facing immigration dilemmas,” said Ryan who lives in Princeton with his wife Rachel, an attorney, and three sons, Noah 16, Evan 14, and Jacob 7.
On Oct. 30, 4-6 p.m., his avocation will be front and center. Tigerlabs at 252 Nassau St. is hosting a reception for the artist Ryan, whose works of art (seven paintings and a few sketches) are on exhibit at the Tigerlabs headquarters through the end of the year.
The exhibit reveals the common thread woven through both his avocation and vocation — a commitment and connection to the people and places of Princeton, which has been his home for nearly two decades. Many people in town have seen that commitment not only through his artwork and his legal practice, but also through his community service on a variety of community boards and commissions, including Princeton Borough Council (1998-2001), Princeton Borough Zoning Board of Adjustment, and the Princeton Joint Consolidation/Shared Services Commission.
The paintings exhibited at Tigerlabs reflect snippets of life from his “Tree Street” neighborhood, comprising people and places all within a block-and-a-half of his house. The oil paintings — using soft colors, light and shadows, transparency and opacity — are evocative, intimate, and tell stories of casual routines, daily experiences and rituals, ordinary, yet extraordinary in the portrayal of Princeton life.
I would like to give a shout out to two particular paintings at Tigerlabs — one completed and the other a work in progress. The painting titled “Small World Coffee” tells the story of the 7 a.m. coffee scene at Small World featuring portrayals of a few of the regular customers. At the Ellarslie Museum’s “Open 33” show this past spring, “Small World Coffee” won the “T. Anthony Pollner Van Gogh Award for Best in Show.”
The work in progress, portraying the interior of Princeton’s first entrepreneurship center Tigerlabs, caught my eye because my name is in it!
Obviously this piece is destined to be a masterpiece. Ryan loves creating contextual canvases for his paintings — background or collage-style wallpaper on which he paints the portrait or scene with a transparency that allows the background to come through. The Tigerlabs painting will have a background that consists of a collage of local newspapers’ logos and headlines — including the banner from The Princeton Packet that features verbiage promoting Pam Hersh’s Loose Ends column. Honestly, I had no idea about this fact when I decided to write my column about Ryan’s dueling talents as an artist and lawyer.
Ryan noted that when he retired from his Princeton Borough Council responsibilities, he missed the level of connection with the town. “I loved getting to know all aspects of the town, the issues, the finances, values, the nooks and crannies, and most of all the people,” he said. “But my painting has brought the same level of connection and engagement and lucky for me, I can share it and celebrate it.”
I would say lucky for us!
