Mark Ryden X Creatura
An imaginative animal kingdom unfolds in Creatura, a new print from Mark Ryden available through Porterhouse Editions that will benefit Creatura Wildlife Projects. “Animals live in the same world we do, but with a profoundly different consciousness. We can see how naturally and effortlessly animals inhabit the present moment. Their lives may appear precarious, any day they could end up in the jaws of a predator, but they aren’t overwhelmed by that possibility,” says Ryden. “Instead, they move through life with a kind of serene acceptance. They aren’t burdened by the anxieties that consume us as humans. I find the spiritual presence in animals deeply inspiring.”
This is Ryden’s fourth print benefiting the organization founded by Kirsten Anderson of Seattle’s long-running gallery Roq La Rue. Creatura Wildlife Projects organizes safaris to conservation areas while supporting local communities and wildlife initiatives. For Anderson, there is a strong connection between art and nature.
“I think my deep love for animals and their welfare is absolutely shared by the artists I show and the collectors who buy the work,” says Anderson. “I think if you really love art, which is one of the better components of humanity—then it makes sense that you’d also be caring/fascinated about the other creatures we share our planet with. Animals are the first things our ancestors painted in caves—so there’s a long lineage of ‘animal art,’ and a traditional of expressing the mystical through animal imagery which a lot of artists are attuned to.”
ANIMALS LIVE IN THE SAME WORLD WE DO, BUT WITH A PROFOUNDLY DIFFERENT CONSCIOUSNESS.”
Both Ryden and the collector who commissioned the original had been on the Creatura safari. In the painting, Ryden depicts creatures whose appearance blurs the line between reality and fantasy. Joining them in this leafy, pink and green landscape is a young woman who looks on with wonder at the peaceful scene.
“The animals in the new print are all absolutely fantastical—but a couple are inspired by animals we saw while traveling together in Kenya—such as elephants and giant snails,” says Anderson. “The environment seems to me to be a classic Ryden-esque edenic landscape. It’s very much a ‘peaceable kingdom’ image, which is not always the case in real life! The person and animals are all around a Merkaba—a symbol of spiritual ascension and divine connection—which are things you very much feel in moments when immersed in the wild.”
The whimsical image also speaks to the real need to reconnect humans with nature. “I think there’s a real sense of loss within humans that we have lost a connection to nature and animals as fellow, equal beings that the earth belongs to just as much as us. Sadly, that’s not the case now and humans wreck so much for other species (and wreck our own mental health by destroying the planet),” says Anderson. “But there are people who care and are doing what they can to find solutions to the mass extinction event that’s happening around us. Any action is needed—I encourage anyone to get creatively involved if they feel compelled to do so—we all need you!”*
For full information on the Creatura limited edition lithographic benefit poster being releases October 14th, including edition size and release details, see Porterhouse here.
Scott Musgrove
Mark Ryden
(Mixed media on paper, 13.5” x 10.75”)
No more than a few inches high, these tiny paintings by Indiana-based artist Mab Graves are very much in the spirit of the winter season. In the slightly off-putting style of Big Eyes' Margaret Keane (Vol 34), her dolly-eyed misfits adventure through haunting wintery landscapes and county fairs. Inspired by fairytales and classic literature, along the way they make friends with characters like dachshunds and the Dish who ran away with the Spoon. They always seem to be fleeing- emancipated from the bleakness of reality into Graves' dream world.
An exhibition currently running at National Portrait Gallery features Michael Jackson-inspired art, with Mark Ryden's cover for the 1991 record "Dangerous" prominently featured. But it’s not just the original painting: Ryden crafted an entirely new work, “The King of Pop,” to house the piece.