Mark Ryden -- Happy Birthday -- by Florida Fine Art Blog

Happy Birthday Mark Ryden. Born January 20th 1963 in Medford, Oregon. 
Mark was raised in Southern California and now resides in LA. Mark has seen his star rise the past fifteen years, from relative obscurity to top selling artist commanding huge prices for his work. I have gushed about Mark on this blog before, you can find my post about him HERE.

A great quote attributed to Mark;
“There is a very dark and painful side to life, but that is natural. People in our culture think they shouldn’t ever be unhappy. They think being unhappy is unnatural. They try and make it go away. They take pills or they go to therapy to “fix” themselves. They blame themselves or others for their suffering. We need to understand that sadness is as much a part of this life as joy. It would be easy to just get bitter and cold while focusing on the dark side, but there is also an amazing, wonderful side of life. If you look for it, there is true magic all around us. Maybe that sounds trite to the hardened self-protective modern ego, but there is magic in this miraculous life. If you open yourself, you do make yourself vulnerable to pain but the deeper pain you experience, the deeper joy you can have.”
Please visit these two Mark Ryden websites for more;
Mark Ryden website
Wondertoonel website