Comparing Scott Gustafson And Mark Ryden

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The telling of stories through art allows people to explore concepts in a medium other than language. Behind every artwork there is a story whether placed intentionally by the artists or as a combined effect from the objects in the work. Although the artist often guides the viewer through the story their work creates, sometimes the interpretation is left up to the viewer. When this occurs, the meaning of work can be lost due to people only looking at the explicit, not searching for anything deeper. Two artists that create works to tell or extend an already existing story are Scott Gustafson and Mark Ryden.
Scott Gustafson, born in the 1960’s, first began his artistic ambitions with the appealing idea of animation. These lingering dreams led Gustafson to graduate at the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts with a major in animation. After leaving art school …show more content…

"The tree that moves some to tears of joy is in the eyes of others only a green thing that stands in the way some scarce see nature at all, but to the eyes of the man of imagination, nature is imagination itself." (Brainy Quote, 2001-2014) Ryden endlessly fascinated with the stories of mankind and how they interact with nature. However he understands that not all humans are as receptive to the simple beauties of the natural world and that they have no interest in the endless background stories of our world.
Queen Bee shows Mark Ryden's love for producing cartoonish figures that explore complex background stories through a way other than words. In a lot of his works, Ryden creates his own symbols, such as the bee in this work. By creating modern symbols made up of visual signs to many parts of art history, Ryden shows that the relationship between man and nature is a timeless subject that has and will continue to fascinate mankind. He shows the importance of delving into unique stories shared by mankind and how we came to