Mark Bodnar grew up by the shores of the Great Lake Erie in Ohio. He moved to a haunted quarter of the state capitol and earned a BFA from the Columbus College of Art & Design in 2001. Since then, his artwork has been seen in gallery shows from New York to Los Angeles as well as various publications including The New York Times and National Geographic Adventure. Bodnar created cartoons for Cartoon Network and currently lives and paints in Los Angeles

"Mark Bodnar's work springs forth from the long tradition of cartooning, but he succeeds in making it feel contemporary, rather than treating it as a static object of fetish. His paintings exhibit all of the clarity and directness of the great illustrators of the past and his technique is marked by simplicity, contrast and balance. But his greatest strength lies in the meaning behind the images. Bodnar's work feels more like illustrations to stories that have yet to be written. Creating windows into wonderful worlds is magic of the first order. Mark Bodnar is a master of that particular brand of alchemy."

—Stephen Worth, Director, ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive

"Mark Bodnar's world is one we'd like to visit. The Ohio-born artist and illustrator paints scenes of sweeping forests, hazy beaches and deep gullies, peppered with cartoonish characters in narratives as varied as chopping off their hair to sailing through the sky on a grizzly bear. Bodnar captures the nostalgia of old-time animation with just enough wry humor and boggling scenarios to balance the cute with the bizarro. …where you can gawk and attempt to metaphysically enter a painting. Just watch out for grizzlies."

—Alie Ward (LA TIMES)