Mark Ryden is more than a genius painter. Mark Ryden is a period in art. You have classicism, neo-classicism, impressionism, cubism, abstraction, surrealism, Mark Ryden, pop art, dadaism, and whatever else. That's how it is, friends.






















Mark Ryden has this carefully crafted and balanced universe inside his mind, which he is currently mapping, painting by painting. He deftly mingles with themes of the beautifully macabre, the childish, the absurd, the grotesque and the fragile, in the same delicate way that a swiss maître horloger would craft the elaborate machinery of a miniature clock.

Each scene, each character he creates, is part of an odd story that one could never tell - yet a story nonetheless. When looking at his paintings, you cannot do anything but admire each of the incoporated elements: whether it's joy, fear, sadness, the stark austère pause of a bleeding child inside a 1800's portrait or a strange animal crying in a little girl's hand in a wistful countryside scene -- for a few minutes there, Mark Ryden owns you.
























Here's an excerpt from Mark Ryden's website : "Upon first glance Ryden’s work seems to mirror the Surrealists’ fascination with the subconscious and collective memories. However, Ryden transcends the initial Surrealists’ strategies by consciously choosing subject matter loaded with cultural connotation. His dewy vixens, cuddly plush pets, alchemical symbols, religious emblems, primordial landscapes and slabs of meat challenge his audience not necessarily with their own oddity but with the introduction of their soothing cultural familiarity into unsettling circumstances. Viewers are initially drawn in by the comforting beauty of Ryden’s pop-culture references, then challenged by their circumstances, and finally transported to the artist’s final intent – a world where creatures speak from a place of childlike honesty about the state of mankind and our relationships with ourselves, each other and our past."

Mark Ryden has produced some album covers for the Red Hot Chili Peppers ("One Hot Minute") and Michael Jackson ("Dangerous"), and even has a theme CD, appropriate for the contemplation of his "blood" series, or something like that (Music For Mark Ryden's Blood, on Amazon).

If you want to buy a great book about Ryden, I recommend The Art Of Mark Ryden: Anima Mundi, available on Amazon.

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Streetsy. Daily streetart. With searchable engine. You can input keywords like "Scarekroe", "Neckface", "Obey", and Streetsy will come up with a lot of urban somethings. It's that good. I never thought someone would come up with the concept. I find it purely delightful. On a side note, the doctor said I should not use the word "delightful" more than once a week, or I might have to watch many episodes of "Magnum P.I." just to regain my manhood.

Speaking of 'hood. Streetsy. Check it out.

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I don't know Serge Seidlitz personally, yet I'm sure I could draw a quick portrait of the man: loves confusion, grotesque and absurdity, mixed with flavourful, colourful and vibrant illustration. Loves homemade stuff. Probably has been smoking a bong or two, if only in dreams, with people like Andy Warhol, Terry Gilliam, or anyone working at Rolling Stone magazine - all that while listening to Liz Phair, White Stripes, The Rolling Stones themselves and The Kinks. He must have a crazy sense of humor. His mind must be like this huge toybox in which you throw stuff as kid, and re-discover when you're 30 or so. But like, everyday.

Of course, this is all subjective. But what's not is the work this man produces: you can feel creativity bursting from every stitch, everywhere in there. He's done stuff for MTV, Cingular, Computer Arts, Fused Magazine, Honda, The Cartoon Network, and more. I just look through his stuff and it gives me the profound need to DO MORE.

I call that brain food.

Visit Serge Seidlitz's place here.

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Today is officially Inspiration Day : where, for no particular reason, I celebrate talent in design and art direction by showing some great work from around the world. You might also consider this some sort of aspirational endeavor to push forward every people's ideas and visions on art and communication.

Without any further oscar-emcee comments, let me start with Virtual Hitman Designs. I actually stumbled on this site by pure chance, and I must say the work there is nothing short of inspirational. Urban themes, unknown faces, consumerism themes, expressive gestures upon silhouttes - sometimes dark, sometimes beautiful. All this composes the oeuvre of Virtual Hitman Designs. To paraphrase a great critic of this first 21st century, mr. Peter Griffin: "This is freakin' sweet".

Check out Virtual Hitman Designs here.

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