Ryden boasts tons of experience with album design, lending his own flair to epic album covers like Michael Jackson's Dangerous and Ringo Starr's Time Takes Time to name only a couple. We chatted with the artist via e-mail about the album cover, Los Angeles and his view on pop surrealism today. It only makes sense that Tyler would employ Ryden for a strange, eye-catching design to continue Odd Future's penchant for, well, the odd. The shirt with a neon cat on its surface recently got attention due to a claim that the group stole the design from artist Ian Campbell. With colorful scrawling on the outside and a sign that forbids photos, the Odd Future store looks like a clandestine locale and surprises with its many objects, including the distinctive T-shirts Tyler and crew wear. Odd Future has its own store on Fairfax, close to a string of Ethiopian restaurant and shops and Known Gallery, which hosts a number of street and fine art shows and is associated with the brand The Seventh Letter. The single word 'WOLF' on Tyler's cap solidifies the piece as an album cover. Strange details frame his figure, such as another big-headed figure roaming in the background and a small tree with the head of a baby in the bottom right corner. The Odd Future member stares out as us with eyes set into an oversized head as he casually sits on a small, orange bicycle. He recently created a similarly eerie scene for one of various album covers of rapper Tyler the Creator's Wolf. In fact, one piece named Christina from his 1998 debut exhibition “The Meat Show” depicts the actress in a fancy, yellow dress holding a giant bee near a table showing a slab of meat next to a bottle decorated with Lincoln's visage. No stranger to working with the famous, Los Angeles-based artist Mark Ryden depicts all sorts of well-known figures in his paintings, from Christina Ricci to Abraham Lincoln, in alternative ways that place the faces in another realm altogether.
In a city where celebrity photographers are everywhere, there aren't very many portraits that can change Angelenos' perceptions of their beloved icons.
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