Mark's love of art started early in his childhood, just after it was discovered that he was extremely nearsighted and legally blind.

His first correctional glasses offered Mark a new view of the world, inspiring his obsession with imagery and illustrations. His first works, which he began creating in the late 60's and into the 70's, consisted of many different mediums, including rubber stamp designs, ink illustrations, screen printing, decals, and mail art. He participated in local showings, and received recognition for his work in his home town of Akron, Ohio.

With DEVO, his most successful music project, Mark was able to showcase his artistic abilities on a larger scale, and to millions of people. Through their films, videos, costumes, LP covers, stage shows, and printed materials, Mark and DEVO forever altered commonly held preconceptions of how a rock band should function in popular culture.

During his downtime on early worldwide tours with DEVO, he began illustrating on postcards to send to his friends, which he still creates, and has been creating every day for over 30 years; A very obsessive habit which still yields anywhere from 1 to 25 new images per day. These cards were originally created as his personal diaries, and were never intended for public viewing. That all changed when Mark decided to share his postcard works in his critically acclaimed solo shows during the 80's & 90's, and with his gallery tour in 2003 titled HOMEFRONT INVASION!.

Mark then embarked on his BEAUTIFUL MUTANTS tour in 2004, which showcased his photographic symmetrical creations and 'corrected' imagery. The tour distributed many more of Mark's works throughout the world, and attracted more first-time gallery visitors & art buyers to his shows.

mutatovisual.com

KRK Ryden's art is a record of mongrel pop culture. His aesthetic is informed by comic books, punk rock and cartoons, while his worldview is strictly DEVO. KRK's work embraces everyday absurdity and a cartoony view of reality. His paintings are colorful and visually appealing reflections on discarded icons, and his graphics are well-realized snapshots of life. For over 30 years KRK has been creating illustrations and paintings for underground bands, publishers and institutions. (KRK Ryden is also related to the artist Mark Ryden - they are brothers.)

krkland.com

Valium, whose real name is Patrick Henley, was born in 1959 in Montreal. Besides appearing in numerous anthologies around the world, he has also had a number of albums published in France, Canada and the U.S. Some of his titles include 1000 It's an Album Valium! (1987 & 1996, self-published), Primitive Cretin (1994 & 1996, self-published), Elle Est De Retour! (1989), Maladies (1991), The Clinical Visit (1995), La Prison Anale des Freres Rouges (1996), Curees Maladies (2000), and Mothers Heart (2000). His style is hallucinogenic and over-powering.

henriettevalium.com

Josh Taylor died in the year 2037 at the young age of 57. Before Josh Taylor died, however, he was born. That is usually how it happens in the game of life, and Josh's life was no exception.

Josh was born in the town of Ridgewood, New Jersey. The year was 1980 and he was zero years old at the time of birth. By the second grade the Government was alerted of this talented Josh Taylor. Spies were sent to Chardonavoyn Road in Warwick, N.Y. (where the Taylor family had moved) and his house was bugged.

Josh continued with the rating and eventually ended up at the fictional art institute called Pratt in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he studied illustration and minored in something art related. He graduated at the top of his class in 2002 and was asked to speak at the graduating ceremony. Josh accepted the invitation and went on for about 25 minutes on how he felt the Government was starting to get too closely involved in the art community. Josh grew up to be a normal artist. Starving sometimes, other times catching a break.

Works illustrated by Josh Taylor include Payday ( written by Todd Kurpel, Counter Culture Comics #1); Turn the Page (written by John Schilm); and Untitled Graphic Novel ( written by Michael Stanton).

joshtaylorart.net

Caro Caron is a Montreal based artist who who has published her work in newspapers and magazines such as Kick Magazine, Cyclops, Aim of the Eye Album (Conundrum Press, 2002), L'Enfante du Cyclops (Zone Convective Ed. 2002), Fish Piss Magazine (2001), Katshup Comic Calendar (2001), Ferraille Fanzine (Feraille International 2000), La Cyclops Album (Zone Covective Ed 2000), Montreal Mirror Special Comix Edition (1999), Kerozen #14 (1998), Mac Tin comic book (1998), and Women's Comic Book (1998).

Caron participated for four years in the night street painting event Nuit Blanche Sur Tableau Noir in Montreal and has been a body painter and make-up artist for eleven years. She was invited to the Festival de B.D. d'Angouleme, France 2003 to represent Quebec with Cyclops Artists and received grants from the Canadian Government for all Cyclops issues. This will be Caron's second exhibition with l'art Noir.

lambiek.net/artists/c/caron_caro.htm

Angie's ongoing series Sour Girls is heavily influenced by the idea of "kipple". A made up word from Philip K.Dick, kipple is the eventual rot of manmade items without humans there to make them useful. Angie feels that nowhere is this concept embraced more so than in New Orleans, where we cling to the old and the smell of decay is always just underneath the surface of things.

Angie's Sour Girls fit in perfectly with New Orleans decay, blending stripped down girls with found objects that have previously been stripped of their use. Created completely with watercolors, found frames and other bits of found ribbon, bone, and trinkets, the art, too, will eventually turn into kipple.

Angie currently lives in New Orleans, making it her tenth year here. She recently bought a house in Gentilly and lives with her boyfriend, their three cats and a rabbit, and their plethora of collectibles.

*(You might recognize Angie from the reality TV show Survivor/Palau.)

Largely self-taught, Andrea Garland has explored many artistic mediums and enjoys combining elements not usually found together and creating her own techniques. Her current focus blends together elements of photography, digital design, lightbox techniques, multi-layered images and stained glass with found objects thrown in for good measure.

A New Orleans transplant who arrived from the cold North over sixteen years ago, Andrea currently makes a living as a graphic artist and website designer and co-runs l'art Noir with Master Jeffrey. In her spare time she is a community and political activist and attempts to keep the seven household cats happy.

CompulsiveCreations.com

Caeser Meadows was born in 1968 and grew up in New Orleans. In his early years he was an avid reader of comic strip paperbacks that he would buy at various (though now sadly defunct) K&B drugstores around town. These paperbacks would prove to be a great source of inspiration in his later creative endeavors as a self-taught cartoonist.

Meadows currently creates a couple of monthly comic strips for two local periodicals. Where Y'at Magazine has published Mumbeaux Gumbo since August 2001 and Antigravity Magazine has published Qomix since 2003. The comic strips are reformed and self-published as micro-comics and then sold in capsule vending machines around New Orleans. Meadows also sells comics in unique handcrafted paper packages shaped like pyramids, robots, TV sets and microbuses, among other things.

For several years now, Meadows has participated in the Babylon Lexicon ArtBook exhibits at Barristers Gallery. Since its inception in 1998, he has been one of the hosts of the underground comic book jam “dafa FUNGUS” on Wednesday nights in New Orleans.

He currently resides about 35 miles upriver from New Orleans in the sleepy little hamlet of Reserve, LA., where he works out of his Jigsaw Junction Studio Archive.

jigsawjct.com

Master Jeffrey:

Master Jeffrey is a photographer, artist and the founder of l'art Noir. His photography career began as a photojournalist for Southern Star Boating magazine in South Florida, covering the offshore powerboat racing circuit. In 1989, Southern Star and Jeffrey won three awards due to his coverage.

Master Jeffrey eventually left the boating and advertising world to focus more on his fine art and gallery aspirations. Former clients and publications include: Hot Boat magazine, Century Boats, Revlon, Jazz Iz magazine, and Diamond Advertising & Publishing.

Master Jeffrey closed shop in South Florida in 2001 and moved the project to New Orleans. After a brief run at the Mazant Guest House during which he married Andrea Garland, Jeffrey and Andrea found a permanent location on St. Claude Avenue and are currently working with Barrister's Gallery and Farrington-Smith Gallery to create a new arts district unlike none other in the city.

Alexis Wolf is a photographer currently living in the Ninth Ward of New Orleans. Originally from the midwest, Alexis studied the arts at Columbia College Chicago, where she earned a degree in fine art. Her focus was mainly in the traditional printing process of silver gelatin prints and large format cameras.

In more recent years, she has shifted her focus to incorporating traditional large format cameras with digital giclee printing.

Travis Linde is an artist from the Ninth Ward of New Orleans. His sculptures are constructed of found materials and debris from his home and neighborhood post Katrina. Before the storm, Travis was a vintage motorcycle mechanic, which is very apparent in several of the pieces. Many of the gas tanks, gears, and tools he uses in the sculptures were from his shop, which took on four feet of water. Travis is also a painter, mechanic and a tattoo artist. He has been tattooing for over ten years, and currently works at Pigment Tattoo in New Orleans.

RustyPelicanArt.com