Muralist Ryan Henry Ward can be found rolling around Seattle's neighborhood's in his brown van with gold tinted windows looking for his next canvas.

With dog Merlin at his side for motivation and as a reminder of his on-going theme of having animals in each of his murals, Ward wasn't always the Fremont Orange Splot Gallery artist he has come to be.

Social worker turned street art muralist and painter; Ward grew up in Enumclaw and attended Fairhaven College of Interdisciplinary Studies at Western Washington University. He graduated in 2000 with a degree in children's literature.

After school, he traveled around the world for a year to such places such as South Africa, India, Nepal, Thailand and Laos, never leaving behind his art,

"When in Mozambique, the art I was seeing was similar to what I was trying to communicate," Ward says. "I had a very strong emotional connection with art over there. These were the things that made me want to become an artist when I was traveling."

But Ward found a job as a recreational therapist at The Martin Center, a Catholic community service for at-risk youth (now closed) in Bellingham. He had the bare qualifications they were looking for, a bachelor's degree and experience in working with children. For a few years after working with kids he also worked with AIDS patients and was a care provider for people with mental disabilities.

"I have a strong social conscious that's why I was a social worker," said Ward.

But he remained at heart the artist he says he was from the time he was a kid.

Finally, Ward packed his bags and decided to take his passion for art to the next level and moved a year ago to Seattle.

"I started painting canvases 16 years ago and all I do is art ... what I really like to do is paint canvas" he said.

Ward started contacting places to show his work and received some commission work. He wanted to "step it up a little and become a gallery artist."

In February, he contacted Orange Splot Gallery, a gallery that displays and sells photography and many forms of art. He displayed his work for the past six months and calls Orange Splot his home base.

Across the street from the gallery, he was asked to paint the walls of the Triangle Lounge, his first muralist job in Seattle.

"I did that for beer," he says.

With that under his belt, he continued to drive around Seattle with the urge to paint on spaces.

Living out of his van he said, "I feel like I'm traveling and not tied down."

He started asking people if he could paint on their walls and painted a mural along Leary Avenue Northwest and Northwest 45th Street of a pitbull and unicorn playing guitar (the pitbull is modeled after the building owner's dog).

He just finished a mural of an image of St. Francis in a deer at the Episcopal Bookstore on Stone Way.

Ward said most owners of walls have thoughts on what they would like to be put on their walls.

"I've always wanted to create something unique, my vision is to offer that to the world, and I feel like I'm finally there and I want to do it on a big scale," said Ward. "There are a lot of reasons why I want to do these murals and one of them is to encourage imagination, social conscious and also to get my name out as an artist. It makes Seattle cool to bring street art out to the public, it's something that everyone can participate in. It also covers the grey as much as possible."

Ward's ultimate plan is to create 50 murals in Seattle. He would like to get five murals in 10 different neighborhoods but first he has to get to know building owners, the people and the local community.

"I believe in karma, if you put something out in the world something's going to come back to you. So if you put out what you love, then interesting and cool things come back your way," said Ward.

"Share what you can do with the world and it'll all work out."

Ryan Henry Ward's work can be seen at Fremont's Orange Splot Gallery, 3519 Fremont Pl., Seattle 98103. Hours are Mondays and Wednesdays 11 a.m.-4:30 p.m., Thursdays-Saturdays 11 a.m.-7 p.m., Sundays 11 a.m.-6 p.m., closed Tuesdays.

Allison Espiritu may be reached at 783-1244 or allisone@robinsonnews.com.