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People have the idea that an image must stand for something else, that the real meaning needs to be described with language. Instead it is the image itself that is the meaning.
—Mark Ryden
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I came across the quote above from contemporary artist Mark Ryden and it struck a chord with me. So, often an image has a feeling to it that is beyond words that adequately describe it. I know I have sometimes written about a piece of mine and even though I have tried to fully describe how it strikes me, I often feel that the words fall well short.
Sometimes you just have to let the image be what it is.
Now, to be honest, I don’t know a lot about Mark Ryden except that he is a contemporary big name artist that works in the genre of Pop Surrealism. His work is sometimes also called Lowbrow which is a movement that began in LA in the 1970’s based on underground comix, punk music and other fringe pop references such as the tiki and hot rod cultures of the region. You may best know his work from his album cover painting for Michael Jackson’s Dangerous.
His work is engaging and appealing on many levels with recurring themes that run through the work. It is rich in symbolism though I think there is so much ambiguity that one could get lost in trying to decode many of the paintings. Which makes his statement about the image itself being its own meaning even more understandable.
I also came across another quote from Ryden that hits close to home for me: I believe if you follow your heart and do what you love, success will follow. If you enchant yourself, others will be too.
It’s something I have been saying for many years now. The biggest challenge as an artist is creating in yourself an excitement with your own work. If you are excited– enchanted in Ryden’s words– by it, more likely than not, it will excite others as well.
I can see where Ryden would be exchanted in his own work. It is something to which any artist in any field should aspire.
Redtree Times 