Meet Mark Alan Greenberg. MAG for short. This is his bio. Your chance to get to know me. I mean him. I was born in Montreal the day before Medicare, Canada’s answer to group health care, was officially introduced. That’s the cloud I have been living under for the last three decades; thanks dad. I wish that I could say growing up on the east coast in Canada’s most romantic city engrained within me a… how do you say, ‘je ne sais quoi!’ meets renaissance liaise fair artistic dreamer. I can’t say that though for I left Montreal, family in tow, for the shores of the pacific at age seven. Seven years olds don’t know much about liaise fair romantic dreams.

Instead, I grew up living someone else’s dream on the beaches of West Vancouver. Not a bad place to dream really. I was a good kid who stayed out of trouble. It was easy. I was the youngest of four kids. The babe of the family; it showed. Still does. Some where along my short life line, I believe that it was grade 8 or 9, a teacher gave me a book. F Scott Fitzgerald’s THE GREAT GATSBY; I still have the copy. That my friend was the beginning of the end. I wonder if I was too young to understand such a book. I thought that I was THE GREAT GATSBY. Honestly, it really fucked me up for what turned out to be nearly twenty years of my life. I recognized a similar fate in the character, perhaps subconsciously, a choice that I had made, definitely subconsciously, years earlier. A choice that lead me down the path of ‘Solutions Provider.’ I chose to follow the paths of friends and family instead of my own. Boy was I good at it. Now in the 80’s the term had yet to be coined, ‘Solutions Provider.’ Was I ahead of the curve?

By the end of the decade I was on top of my game. Pilot’s license (I was going to be a commercial pilot), graduated high school with honors (I think it was with honors), owned my own company while attending Simon Fraser University. Incidentally, I never did attend my convocation. A fact which my mother, who slightly resembles Mrs. Kastanza if not in image then in heart, still holds above my #2 shaved head; aka the prisoner’s hair cut. Why didn’t I attend convocation? Well, after four hellish years in university, for dear mum, I had enough credits, 120, to graduate. I also had a knapsack with a Canadian flag on the back, my buddy Drew and Cheap airfare! I went to Europe. It was either the plane, or walking across a stage wearing a stinky polyester robe. I figured in Europe I would do a lot of walking in stinky cathedrals; walk we did. Those three months were the best months to date of my two decades on planet earth. I remember riding a ferry from Athens to Santorini. I was sitting bundled up in my sleeping bag as the winds ripped across the decks of a near sinkable boat. The day was filled with sunshine. It was the day I grieved the passing of my grandfather’s death - which happened many months prior. He was with me. I wonder what he was doing in Greece. Looking back now, hindsight being 20:20, I was close to my path at that moment. If only i could see.

I returned from Europe to a huge spaghetti dinner, hugs from mum and ideals on how to change the world. Then Monday morning came around and I caved. My role, Solutions Provider/Financial Advisor. I wore the title proudly and cowardly. And with the title came a series of more successes. More titles. More Business. More clients and more money. More, More and More. I was lucky. I was lost. My path was never so far away and yet to everyone around, best friends and colleagues, I was on top of the world with a white picket fence and all

I met the girl I would fall in love with and would call my best friend. Together we weaved our lives into a terrific mess of mis-learning and fear. It was a lot of fun. Then with almost no notice, 10 years later, my world would come crashing down like a natural disaster not known to man kind leaving me single and alone for the first time in my life. The thing is, it wasn’t a natural disaster at all. It wasn’t unique and mankind was busy. It was an experience part and parcel for anyone who was living a dream of fear; eyes wide shut. One would think that a ‘Solutions Provider’ would have seen the signs and figured out a solution. Well, I choose to ignore the signs and so the messages got louder and larger until the bat and ball connected for the grand slam. Oh Boy did it Hurt! I’m not sure what hurt more, the experience or the realization that I had steered my own destiny into the experience.

Now surgically removing the baseball bat from my face was relatively easy. It was my left and right foot, ego, fear, pride and forgiveness that took a little bit more time. And in the end, I can honestly say, that the ride was worth while and partially fun.

I realized that having love in my life is more powerful than having fear in my life. Dreams do come true. I choose what happens to me in my life so I better take responsibility of the controls. Most important, you can take this to the bank, everything happens for a reason. I’m a very powerful and happy person today. My past experiences were necessary so I could learn the tools to make my passions and liaise fair dreams come true. Heck I know what I’m going to do when I grow up. It only took me three decades to get back on path! That’s lucky.

There’s one more fantastic thing about finding my path and that is anything I dream is possible. All I have to do is believe 'IT' and tell ‘IT’ to the world. Why? My path is like an Infinite Abyss of opportunity. It sounds better if you yell it; INFINITE ABYSS! My Infinite Abyss doesn't know any better than not to have my dreams occur. My Infinite Abyss has never been told NO. So logic dictates that anything is possible on my path as long as I believe in it.

My current occupation is: Infinite Abyss Dreamer. It’s a tough job that I love. In actuality I split my time between two dreams of mine: AVIDWORX Productions Inc. and MAG Design. AVIDWORX Productions Inc. is an Interior/Industrial Design company that my business partner Marcel Newell and I started in 2001. We have been growing at 100% a year since day one with clients all over North America. MAG Design is where my creative side really gets to exercise its lungs and SCREAM OUT in a Mix Medium meets Pop Art sort of way. If you catch me mucking around with puzzle pieces and glue - it's not because I’m sniffing the glue – I’m actually building Installation Art. Really. No, seriously, I am. I wouldn't lie.

I am working on several large pieces at the moment. Isaac and Candle is an installation piece that will be exhibited in Black Rock City at Burning Man 2006. I’m also working long nights so I can finish several pieces for a gallery show that I will be participating in this November. I have huge goals like using my art to help raise millions for children around the world while promoting increasing awareness for undiscovered artists.

Meet mag. Mark Alan Greenberg. This is his bio. Written by mag in first person. Even though he was told that it should be written in third person and by someone else. I hope you have a better idea of who I am. If you ever find yourself in Vancouver look me up. I feel like I’m just beginning to learn how to recognize myself in the mirror. Lessons on learning how to run start next week; care to keep up!

mag mod pop art