Mark Baranowski - Multimedia Artist

Our Story

Those familiar with Mark Baranowski tend to call him a "Jack of All Trades," or an "all-purpose artiste," and with good reason. Born in Buffalo, New York, in 1974, he took a keen interest in drawing even before he could write his own name. He would hone this talent through years of art classes and photo studies, and would later focus exclusively on creating charcoal pencil illustrations, whether commissioned or for his own display.

By the late 1980's, he began writing songs and making rap music, and then self-distributing it. Within 10 years, he and a long-time friend started their own record label, Nickel City Records, through which they released their music on a worldwide scale. By that time, Mark had relocated to Charlotte, North Carolina, and was just starting to refocus his interest on independent film-making.

In late 1999, Mark wrote his first screenplay. This work gained him the services of a manager in Hollywood, but after two years of pitching and no major progress, it was time for Mark to take the advice of actor Bruce Campbell - to stop looking to others in trying to fulfill his dreams. Thus, he turned Nickel City Records into On Mark Productions, partnered with aspiring model-actress Ryli Morgan, and the two began collaborating on their own film and music projects.

Now, nearly two decades later, Mark & Ryli’s creative output is still going strong, and shows no sign of stopping... They’ve been blessed with two children; Ryli has returned to modeling and now takes on acting duties for other filmmakers’ projects; Mark has added "author," "photographer," and an ever-expanding fine art/merchandise line called Marquis' Brothel (marquisbrothel.com) to his already impressive resume.