Mark Braver was born in Riga, the capital of Latvia, in 1958. An artist at heart, he had to set his passion aside and join the Red Army. Upon his discharge, he married and had a daughter. However, being sympathetic to the Jewish cause, he became involved in forbidden Zionist activities that brought about his arrest and imprisonment. Braver braved five brutal years in a Soviet prison before he was reunited with his wife - they soon had two more daughters. Fortunately, times had changed while he was imprisoned - finally policies in his country became more welcoming of individualism, culture, and the arts. Rekindling old friendships with fellow artists, he was motivated to pick up his paintbrush again. Braver moved to Israel with his family in 2000 and continued to pursue art. His beautiful artworks can be found in private collections in the United States, Europe, and Israel.