Mark Ryden
Mark Ryden's paintings [http://markrydenart.blogspot.com/]have been described as fascinating and disconcerting, impenetrable and enthralling, unsettling, mystical, cuddly and scary all at once. Ryden has been called the king of the Pop Surrealism movement. Combining cheerful child-like images with disturbing pieces of body parts or strange sights in nature, creating a strange mixture of children's book imagery and meat or blood. Inspired by alchemy, metaphysics, science, and philosophy and fascinated with ancient cryptic symbols and mystical imagery, Mark Ryden creates extraordinary storybook artworks which are beautiful yet disturbing.
Ryden's work combines saccharine-sweet, cartoon-like characters with a detailed fullness and a creepy combination of numerology, little girls, meat, Catholic and Buddhist symbolism, and carnivalesque Americana. Attracted to things that bring to mind memories from childhood, Mark Ryden often incorporates toys, as well as scenes of bunnies, children, clowns, and ice cream trucks, they just happen to be combined with skulls and porterhouse steaks.
Ranging from large highly-polished oil paintings to small black-and-white works on paper, Mark Ryden exploded onto the art scene in the 1990s as both pop art illustrator and fine art painter. His paintings have gained greater recognition thanks to publications such as Juxtapoz, which features his art regularly, and to his work on many album covers including Michael Jackson's "Dangerous," Red Hot Chili Peppers "One Hot Minute," Scarling's "Sweet Heart Dealer" as well as covers for Ringo Starr and Jack Off Jill. His Ryden's artwork is also on the dustjack of Stephen King's novels "Desperation" and "The Regulators."
Many new people became fans after Chris Garver did a replica of Ryden's print "Rose" on Miami Ink and his artwork is now highly desirable for tattoos. However, it takes a highly talented artist to be able to reconstruct his exceptional masterpieces.
"Rose", a gothic girl crying tears of blood is the most popular of his works to be translated to skin, though many others have also made the leap including "Fountain," a painting of a girl holding her head while blood shoots from her neck, "Nurse Sue," and "Dog Named Jesus."
"I find it so much easier to be creatively free at night. Daytime is for sleeping. Nighttime is the best time for making art. The later at night it gets the further into another world you go." - Mark Ryden
Ryden's work combines saccharine-sweet, cartoon-like characters with a detailed fullness and a creepy combination of numerology, little girls, meat, Catholic and Buddhist symbolism, and carnivalesque Americana. Attracted to things that bring to mind memories from childhood, Mark Ryden often incorporates toys, as well as scenes of bunnies, children, clowns, and ice cream trucks, they just happen to be combined with skulls and porterhouse steaks.
Ranging from large highly-polished oil paintings to small black-and-white works on paper, Mark Ryden exploded onto the art scene in the 1990s as both pop art illustrator and fine art painter. His paintings have gained greater recognition thanks to publications such as Juxtapoz, which features his art regularly, and to his work on many album covers including Michael Jackson's "Dangerous," Red Hot Chili Peppers "One Hot Minute," Scarling's "Sweet Heart Dealer" as well as covers for Ringo Starr and Jack Off Jill. His Ryden's artwork is also on the dustjack of Stephen King's novels "Desperation" and "The Regulators."
Many new people became fans after Chris Garver did a replica of Ryden's print "Rose" on Miami Ink and his artwork is now highly desirable for tattoos. However, it takes a highly talented artist to be able to reconstruct his exceptional masterpieces.
"Rose", a gothic girl crying tears of blood is the most popular of his works to be translated to skin, though many others have also made the leap including "Fountain," a painting of a girl holding her head while blood shoots from her neck, "Nurse Sue," and "Dog Named Jesus."
"I find it so much easier to be creatively free at night. Daytime is for sleeping. Nighttime is the best time for making art. The later at night it gets the further into another world you go." - Mark Ryden
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