| Ryl
Mandus
contemporary narratives |
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| excerpted
from an unauthorized autobiography:
" . . . stolen from Gypsies as an infant, later she was frequently spirited away by the 'Little People'. To this day the reasons remain a ✽mystery. It would be a mistake to presume hers was a normal childhood; it's regarded the chief cause of her restless nature and tragic inability to resist pursuing tangents to their often absurd conclusions, . . . had once run away to join the circus, but it had already gone home to Montreal." "Though born in the southeastern United States, Ryl now lives thousands of miles away after being grabbed by a tornado and flung to the distant, mythical Pacific Northwest, giving Kansas a clear miss." "Ryl has chosen to study art privately: 'It's a Hopi belief that knowledge is not given -- it must be earned. No one can simply hand skill or knowledge to me. It will always come down to my personal efforts. As Da Vinci said it, 'I am a disciple of Experience.' " ". . . for several years studied classical guitar and fencing under the tutelage of masters of both arts." ". . . having ADD is something she's come to regard as an asset. When treatment was once helpfully suggested, she replied: 'This deficiency is my Muse. The colors of Life are richer without kick-back prescriptions that have untold cascading side-effects.' Ryl's AD/HD distractability has sometimes proven itself a challenge, mostly for those individuals who are too dull to hold her attention. 'How can my taking a pill,' she asks in incredulous wonder, 'possibly make the other person more interesting?' " ". . . and has received numerous awards for her artworks, many of which now reside in private collections around the globe." ✽A mystery to all except Oz's creator, L. Frank Baum. He knew,.... |
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"I have always had a curious nature; I enjoy learning, but I dislike being taught." -- Winston Churchill |
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Listen to the MUSTN'TS, child, |
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| ABOUT THE ART:
I loiter in fine art museums to gape in awe at the masters' works and study their palettes, compositions and brush strokes. Often I'm 'harumphed' at by museum guards who think that maybe three inches between my nose and the painting behind the stanchions is just a little too close. [Did you know that "harumph" in Danish sounds just like "harumph" in English?] Whether working in oils, acrylics, or mixed media, I try to match medium to the intended atmosphere of my paintings. I prefer to paint on surfaces with texture, something with tooth to it. If the painting surface lacks sufficient texture, I give it more by applying either a heavy gel medium or a quick-curing gesso, or by working in impasto. |
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| "It's not what you look at, it's what you see." -- Henry David Thoreau | |
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I work alone in the studio, with the exception of the family cats who always
seem to be on the wrong side of any closed door. I need music to
work by that echoes the nature of the current artwork: jazz, classical,
flamenco, classic rock, rhythm 'n' blues, or movie sound tracks
- guitarist John Williams, Sting, Paco Peña, Seal, Pink Floyd, David
Bowie, Annie Lennox, Carlos Santana, Django Reinhardt, Al Di Meola, John Lee Hooker, Danny
Elfman and Carl Stalling are among my old favorites.
For the compositions, I draw mostly on my own memories, dreams and nightmares. I have an unrepentant passion for research and dot-connecting, leading me to see remarkable parallels between the various world mythologies. Humanity's forbidden and lesser known histories have always beckoned to me, and I try to peel back the veneers imposed upon civilization and the human psyche to see what lies beneath them, working to decipher what I find there using the tools of symbol, metaphor, and archetype. |
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