Words by: Kate Lightfoot
Remember that scene in The Sixth Sense when the kid who sees dead
people asks Bruce Willis if he ever feels ‘the prickly things’ on the
back of his neck?
That’s how I feel when I look at a Mark Ryden painting.
LA
based Ryden is a masterful painter whose technical skill is as
brilliant as his subject matter is … well, just plain creepy. Don’t get
me wrong, these paintings are utterly captivating. But Ryden’s work has
more layers upon layers upon layers than a Sara Lee Apple Strudel. And
when you start scratching beneath the surface, prepare to be alarmed.
At
first glance you’d be forgiven for thinking ‘perfect for the nursery!’
– after all, Ryden’s art looks much like the old fashioned
illustrations that would have adorned your parent’s bedrooms and books
when they were children.
Take The Ecstasy of
Cecelia for instance. It’s a sweet painting of a little girl in a
pretty party dress playing a pink baby grand piano. But hang on, why is
the giant bunny jack-in-the-box grinning like that? And is that a naked
baby leaning on a leg of lamb in the corner? And then there’s the lab
equipment and Abe Lincoln and … there go those prickly things on the
back of my neck.
Or how about Butcher Bunny
(yeah, I know, the title sets off alarm bells)? But there’s a real
sweetness and innocence in the face of the little girl who’s leading a
tiny Abe Lincoln by the hand into a butcher shop where a giant bunny
plush toy is cutting up hunks of meat with a … prickle prickle prickle.
So
by now you’re probably wondering what sort of messed up childhood this
guy must have had. Sorry to disappoint you – it was pretty normal.
Mark’s dad made ends meet by painting, restoring and customising cars.
His mum devoted herself to raising her five children and encouraging
them in creative pursuits.
Of
course, Little Mark took great delight in freaking out his teachers by
drawing dogs with their intestines showing and self portraits with a
third eye. And, yeah, almost all of his yearbook signatures are to a
‘weird, but nice’ guy.
Today this ‘weird, but
nice’ guy’s distorted fairy tale images are exhibited in museums and
galleries worldwide, and his clients include Stephen King (no surprises
there), Leonardo DiCaprio and Ringo Starr.
Mark
Ryden deserves every success. Trained as an illustrator, he originally
learned to paint in acrylic, and then taught himself to use oils.
Legend has it that there’s a secret ingredient in his oil paint, but
when asked about this, Ryden’s reply was a cryptic, ‘I have to keep
that in the cone of silence’.
The amount of
effort and care he puts into each piece is phenomenal. Do you know, it
took him almost two years to complete the eight paintings in his
Bunnies and Bees exhibition. That’s unusual these days where everything
has to be done right NOW. But Ryden refuses to be rushed. He paints
slowly, he takes his time and gets it right. Truth be told, there’s a
touch of nerd about him – who else uses a magnifying glass to get every
detail right? But when all’s said and done, it’s these details that
make the difference between a nice painting and a spellbinding Ryden
masterpiece.
So make sure you take a good look
at these details. Then look again. That way, when you see a painting
like Swap Meet Man you’ll notice the bunny riding a deer. And then
realise it’s actually a baby in a bunny suit riding a deer. Oh, hang on
– a baby in a bunny suit sitting on the skeleton of a deer while
holding its mounted head in the appropriate position.1 How could I have
been so mistaken?