Possessing the intense irrationality of a dream, Mark Bryan's intuitively created images evoke emotions that are curiously tempered by a comic quality. Like all images that derive from the subconscious, they are ambiguous; yet even with their incongruous nature, they hint at profound underlying thoughts and anxieties.
Dreams are filled with metaphors, a crossing over from unconscious to conscious levels of understanding. Bryan's paintings underscore the synthesis that can occur when the magical world of the artist's dream life is transfused into pictorial reality. In concert, the two stimulate the mind of the viewer and evolve to yet another magical world of subjective reality.
Bryan's work elicits multiple interpretations. Some can be read as the annihilation of stereotypes and antiquated belief systems. His use of the "fool" is perhaps a "wise fool," who has possibly gained new insights, and wastes no time in distancing himself from the asphyxiating tenets of outdated dogma.
Humor and laughter do not exist in the absence of sorrow and tears, but co-exist as a balance of sanity. Bryan's iconography, loaded with its multiple inferences, has the potential to make us laugh and ponder "enlightened" human frivolities and stupidities.
"Sometimes while I'm sketching," says Bryan, "I feel like I'm taking notes at a dark comedy, but the play never ends, and I can't go home."
Mark Bryan's artwork was featured in the January issue of Juxtapoz, the second most widely read arts and culture magazine in the United States. His works have also been featured in several issues of Adbusters. In the most recent issue of the Otis College of Art and Design Quarterly, Mark is lauded with a Cool Designer Award. His satirical image of Dick Cheney also graces the magazine. His work has been collected by Bruce Joel Ruben, John Mc Enroe, Tatum O'Neill, Rae Dawn Chong, C. Thomas Howell, Lawrence Welk, Jr., the TransAmerica Corporation, and many luminaries who prefer anonymity.
- Sources: Mark Bryan, Nicholas Roukes, Robert Squires
Twenty eight paintings by the artist are included in this exhibit. Framed, limited edition giclees, t-shirts, and posters are also available.
For more information about Mark and examples of his artwork, please see:
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Mark Bryan and Garry Eister's
"The Screaming Bunny" Performance
A Benefit for "The World Can't Wait - Drive Out The Bush Regime"
http://www.worldcantwait.org/
Date: Saturday, March 17th at 8:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.
Suggested Donation: $10
Note: Please RSVP via email to rs@carlottaspassion.com so that we can meet the requirements of our audience for this event.
About "The Screaming Bunny"
Artist Mark Bryan and composer Garry Eister will present “The Screaming Bunny”, a collaborative installation/performance.
The Screaming Bunny is a large stuffed rabbit whose face has been replaced with three television monitors, two depicting eyes and one showing his mouth. The bunny is strapped into a "screaming-bunny-restraining-chair."
In part one of The Screaming Bunny Songs, an actor portrays a research scientist who has brought the bunny home as a part of an animal research experiment. The actor and the bunny never interact. Instead, we hear the text of a letter that the scientist writes, explaining the experiment and its unexpected cruel metamorphosis to a friend. At the end of the piece, the bunny sings a poignant song about his connectedness to the Earth.
Parts two and three examine the bunny's life in the lab. The plot thickens!
About Garry Eister
Garry Eister studied with Edward Applebaum, Peter Fricker, Emma Lou Diemer and considers Daniel Lentz to be his mentor. During their association in Santa Barbara in the 1970's, he performed with Lentz's groups on the West Coast and on four European tours.
Eister has a Ph.D. in music composition from UCSB and lives in Arroyo Grande, California. He works as an artist-in-residence in Santa Barbara County schools, teaching folk songs and musical games to elementary school children.
Eister's music has been performed in Germany, Holland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, France, Belgium, Italy, Japan, Poland, Iran and in various cities in the United States. His compositions have been performed and/or recorded by:
- The Emerson String Quartet
- Kent Nagano
- The Cleveland Chamber Symphony
- Daniel Lentz's ensembles
- The San Luis Obispo Mozart Festival Orchestra
- Just Strings
- The USC New Music Ensemble
- The Cuesta Master Chorale
- The San Luis Obispo Youth Symphony
- The Sinfonia di vetro
- Glass Armonicist Dennis James
- Flautist Fred Lau
- Percussionist Doug Ovens
- The Synchronia new music ensemble of St. Louis
- Nancy Nagano and Kyomi Kato- cello/piano duo
- Guitarists Lily Afshar, James Edwards, Jesus Saiz-Huedo, Peter Yates, and John Schneider
- Singers Jacalyn Kreitzer, Jonathan Mack, John Duykers, Hector Vasquez, Maria Jette, Kathy Barata and others
- Kennedy Center and Wigmore Hall (London) In 2005, guitarist Lily Afshar performed his "Fantasia On a Traditional Persian Song" at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. and at Wigmore Hall in London. The piece is included on her Archer Records CD, "Hemispheres."
- Carnegie Hall - In April of '01, the Kreitzer/Davies/Nagano Trio performed his monodrama, "Like Writing on Water," at the Weil Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall in New York.
- Sony Classical - His "Quintet for Glass and Strings" was recorded by Dennis James and the Emerson String Quartet for "Cristal: Glass Music Through the Ages," an album of music for instruments made of glass, produced by Linda Ronstadt and John Boylan for Sony Classical.
For more information, please see:
http://artslant.com/la/events/show/1885
http://www.fix.net/~geister/heehee.html
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Undocumented Student Scholarship Fundraiser
In Collaboration with the Association of Raza Educators
Sunday, March 25, 2007, 1:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.
Citizenship status should not prevent our brightest students from attending college. This year it will cost $6,522 to attend UCLA.
Undocumented students are inelligible for federal financial aid!
Featuring artwork by:
For more information, please email razaeducators@aol.com or call Erika Coronado at (310) 621-2327.
If you cannot attend, but would like to make a donation, please make checks payable to Association of Raza Educators.
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(On weekday evenings, please call in advance as we sometimes close earlier.)