Ryan Jensen

Wow kids (come on, indulge me - surely we can still think of ourselves as kids, right?) it's hard to believe it's been 15 years since I saw you all. So here's the abbreviated version of what happened to me: After graduation I moved to SLC to attend UofU, majoring in Art History and French. After two years there I transferred to a school in France for a year. I was at the Université de Haute Bretagne in Rennes (about an hour west of Paris), studying Art History,French and Russian (word to the wise - studying a foreign language in a foreign language? I don't recommend it.) I absolutely loved France - if I could have figured out a way to stay, trust me, I'd still be there. It was a great year - I loved the school, but I also loved the opportunity to travel - I spent time in London, Amsterdam, Brussels, all over France, I even spent some time in Istanbul. But reality intervened and I had to return to the U in order to graduate. So I spent another year in Salt Lake, finishing up school, and working at Phillips Gallery (the biggest art gallery in the city).
It was during this last year in Utah that I met my partner Nathaniel - a wonderful guy, who's made my life happy for ten years now. After graduating from the U I was accepted to the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University for graduate school and moved to Manhattan. It had always been a dream of mine to get to New York City, and I finally made it! I moved solo in the summer of '98 into a tiny apartment in the East Village - Nat finally joined me about 6 months later. After a few months in cramped quarters we moved out to Brooklyn where we stayed for about 5 years. I finished up my Masters degree in Art History. I had a series of jobs: freelance writing and research for private art collectors, art advisor (trust me - there's no thrill like spending millions of other peoples' dollars on fine art!) until I finally got tired of the vagaries of freelance life and got a job at Art Resource, which is a fine art stock archive (basically we are a liaison between museums and publishers - if someone wants to publish a work of art they get in touch with us and we make it happen). I've been with the company for about 7 years now - starting as a general researcher, now I'm the General Manager of the company. Today we're back in Manhattan, living in a beautiful apartment in Harlem, with a stunning view of the entire city. I love life in NYC - I can't imagine living anywhere else (except maybe Paris). Sorry I wasn't able to make the reunion - hopefully next time. But if any of you ever make it out East coast, give me a shout - I'd be thrilled to show you around the big city.