Excerpted from an unauthorized biography:

" . . . stolen from Gypsies as an infant, and thereafter often spirited away by the 'Little People', although the reasons remain a *mystery.  It would be unwise to presume hers was a normal childhood, and it's regarded the chief cause of her restless nature and tragic inability to resist persuing tangents to their often absurd conclusions, . . . had once run away to join the circus, but it had already gone home to Canada."

"Though born in the southeastern United States, Ryl now lives a couple thousand miles away from there as the result of having been grabbed up by a tornado and flung to the distant, mythical Pacific Northwest, giving Kansas a clear miss."

"Ryl has chosen to study art privately, quoting that: '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 own personal effort. As Da Vinci said it, 'I am a disciple of Experience.' "
  

One learns by doing a thing;  for though you think you know it, 
you have no certainty until you try. -- Sophocles (496-406 BCE) 

All education must be self-education. -- Robert Henri 

 

". . . for several years studied classical guitar and fencing under the tutelage of masters of both arts."

". . . having ADD is something she has come to regard as an asset.  When treatment was once helpfully suggested, she replied: 'This deficiency is my Muse.  Besides, 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 (usually for the folks who fail to inspire her interest or are unable to hold her attention)."

". . . and has received numerous awards for her work, many of which now reside in private collections around the globe."

*(a mystery to all except Oz's creator, L. Frank Baum.  He knew, . . . . ) 

You cannot teach a man anything;  you can only help him find it within himself. 
-- Galileo --

You're only given a little spark of madness.  You mustn't lose it. 
--  Robin Williams --