Mark Ryden

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Mark Ryden
Bumblebees, bunnies, meat, and Abraham Lincoln

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everybody meet mark Mark Ryden was born on
January 20, 1963 in Medford, Oregon although he
grew up in Southern California. He currently
resides in Eagle Rock, CA with his 2 children
Jasper and Rosie Ryden. When he was a child,
Mark would draw his dogs with their intestines
showing and his self portraits had a 3rd eye. To
get ideas, Mark stuffs himself full of things
like childrens books about space and science,
old photographs of strangers, pictures of bugs,
Ren and Stimpy, Alchemy, Cambell and
Nostradamus, Ken and Barbie, Freemasonary, and
Buddhism. He claims that he really doesnt paint
his paintings, but that a little magic monkey
does. The monkey comes into the studio late at
night-which is the only time you can find Mark
producing-and does most of the work. Marks big
job is just to get him to show up, which takes a
very creative, free feeling frame of mind.
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education
Mark studied illustration and graduated from Art
Center, Pasadena, in 1987.
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children
I still remember the joy I got out of drawing,
painting and building a world of my own when I
was a child. I was free. I try to recapture
that feeling I had making art as a child and to
believe in magic, to play, to dream. Children
see things and feel things that adults dont. To
create his artwork, Mark spends a lot of time
trying to escape the linear adult way of
thinking to find the pathway back to his
childhood. You have to find the particular
things that bring out your spirit. It may be to
get up at the crack of dawn to explore the flea
market in search of a treasure. Perhaps light
incense and listen to music that would embarrass
you if anyone knew about it, and wonder about
alchemy, astrology, and the secrets of the
universe. It is a part of your spirit that still
feels like a kid, and is awe-inspired and
fascinated by the world.
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Peulla animo aureo Oil on canvas, 2001, 18 x 36

children
It is only in childhood that contemporary
society truly allows for imagination. Children
can see a world ensouled, where bunnies weep and
bees have secrets, where inanimate objects are
alive. Many people think that childhoods world
of imagination is silly, unworthy of serious
consideration, something to be outgrown. Modern
thinking demands that an imaginative connection
to nature needs to be overcome by mature ways
of thinking about the world. Human beings used
to connect to life through mystery and mythology.
Now this kind of thinking is regarded as
primitive or naïve. Without it, we cut ourselves
off from the life force, the world soul, and we
are empty and starving. I believe in letting
imagination thrive in my art. I am not afraid of
nostalgia or sentiment. I value taking the time
to make a painting beautiful. I want to
breathe life into my paintings.
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the birth
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sweat
Oil on board
Pretty weird, huh?
2004
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Jasper Ridin
Oil on canvas 1994
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wound
Oil on panel, 6x6, 2003
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the cloven bunny
Oil on panel, 4.25x3.5, 2003
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mediums and materials
From observation, I have gathered that basically
all of Marks paintings were done in oil.
Naturally, he sketched the majority of his pieces
before painting them. The graphite sketches were
not painted over, but rather left alone and
included with his gallery work. They are just as
gorgeous as the paintings- in fact, I personally
favor the sketches over the paintings. The
paintings were done on boards, panels, canvases,
and other unknown surfaces. But lets look at
some of those graphite sketches..
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peck
Graphite on paper, 2003 10.5 x
13.5
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baudelaire
Date unknown
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pet
little meat thief
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kara
jolene
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Meat?
Surely Mark gets asked all the time why he paints
meat so often. He admits that one of the reasons
he likes to paint meat is because people do
wonder about it so much, but there are actually
many reasons One of my primary thoughts was
expres-sed simply by Virgil Crow when he wrote
Life is a great illusion. We are creatures of
pure energy and Meat is the element that keeps
us here. I think about how Meat was once part
of a beautiful living creature that has then
become an inanim-ate substance that we treat w/
little regard or awareness of what it once was.
It was once alive. From the Bible, Matthew
2626 And as they were eating, Jesus took bread
and blessed it, and broke it, and gave it to the
disciples and said, Take, eat this is my body.
I have found this verse the source of much
curiosity. How bizarre a ritual Catholics
partake in each Sunday as they
the butcher bunny
Oil on panel, 2000
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eat the body of Christ in communion. The literal
interpretation of this can be the source of
endless visuals from the humor-ous to the
horrific. There is an obvious horror connection
w/ the meat industry. The in-humane butchery.
So many of us indirectly participate in this w/
our ravenous consumption of meat. In my art, I
am not personally making a statement or judgment
about the meat consum-ption in our culture. I
feel like I am just more observing it. I am a
passionate meat-eater. But there is a paradox of
knowing how that scrumptious porterhouse made it
to my dinner plate. We have lost any
reverence for this. It would be interesting if
people would have to kill an animal before they
earned the right to eat it. Beyond the
conceptual impact, meat simply has a very strong
visual quality. The wonderful variety of textures
and patterns in the marbling of the meat is
sumptuous. Subtle pinks gently swirl around w/
rich vermillions and fatty yellow orchres. These
visual qualities alone are seductive enough to
make meat the subject of a work of art. Meat is
glorious to paint. It is so easy to transcend the
represent-ational to the abstract. Meat has been
a subject for painters from Rembrandt to Van
Gogh.
the angel of meat Oil on panel, 1998,
38 x 33
-Mark Ryden, Juxtapoz magazine
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the meat magi oil on canvas, 1997, 20 x 24
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A dog named Jesus oil on panel, 1997, 11 x
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the magic circus oil on canvas, 2001, 40x 60
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cd art by mark ryden
Michael Jackson
The Red Hot Chili Peppers
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scarling
jack off jill
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Saint Barbie Oil on panel, 1994
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Movin on up to the top
Mark Ryden is becoming more popular everyday.
His disturbing yet beautiful paintings intrigue
thousands, from goth girls to huge companies like
Warner Brothers. He is said to be the reigning
art star of Juxtapoz, a really hip art
culture magazine for those that are too cool for
school. Mark is also said to be the next big
thing in the lowbrow art scene. Hes been
labeled Overachiever Extraordinaire by Juxtapox
in 98. His paintings have sold anywhere from
10,000 to 600,000 dollars.
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Abraham Lincoln
There are several objects, creatures, and
characters that Mark uses repeatedly in his work.
Meat would probably be the most obvious. Then
theres Jesus, blood, mythological symbols and
creatures, bunnies, bees, and Abraham Lincoln
In an interview for Juxtapoz magazine, Mark was
asked What is it about Abe Lincoln that
intrigues you so? Is it the big mole on his face
or his demented chickenhawk gaze? Mark simply
replied, He was the King of Presidents.
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Just for fun, heres a good look at Abraham
Lincolns demented chickenhawk gaze.
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The butcher bunny Oil
on panel 2000, 16 x 16
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jessicas hope oil on canvas,
2001, 12 x 14
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My goal in art is to get past literal conscious
thought and try to let my uninhibited
subconscious mind make my art. I can feel it
when this is working. I have heard many artists
describe the same feeling. Some think it is the
hand of God using them as an instrument of
creation. Some describe it as the creative
energizing force that permeates all nature
creating through them. It is like being helped
by some unknown mysterious force, Anima Mundi,
the Spirit of the Universe.
-Mark
Ryden 2001
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Bibliography

• earlmcgrathgallery.com. 17 Jan 2006
• ryden/
• en.wikipedia.org. 9 Jan 2006
• www.markryden.com . 20 Jan 2006
• www.wondertoonel.com. 20 Jan 2006
• www.xahlee.org. 23 Jan 2006
• Ryden.html-3k