Lisa Larson

I think my style is a columniation of years of various jobs in various industries, it’s developed over my lifetime. I was a hippy kid on a remote island in Alaska who had a knack for drawing, all I knew is that I wanted to make art for a living. Art schools were pretty spendy, and the dot com boom was reaching it’s fever peek, so I ended up in a tiny private school in the middle of the Silicon Valley specialized in the newfangled computer arts. I set out to be a web designer without really knowing what that meant. Instead I fell into making video games and doing a lot of concept drawings of machines, weapons, and scantily clad women. I took a lot of life drawing, sought critique and advice from professionals whenever I could (it’s easy to get help if you’re a girl in the video game industry), and participated in making concept art for video games whenever I could. Most of what I know, though, came later from 3 semesters at San Jose state where I was trained to render realistic illustrations through a series of intense boot-camp like assignments. You really learn to look hard and think before making your next mark when the teacher gives you black construction paper and an exacto knife and tells you to “draw” the skeletons sitting in chairs in front of you. Then I did a short stint at Disney where I rummaged through their reference library and art archives like a kid in a candy store, and pitched video game concepts in a think tank environment. These things all kind of molded how I draw. I don’t really try to have a “style”, it just comes out looking a certain way, whether I like it or not. I do. I make slot machines. This always requires explanation. Slot machines have evolved in a way that they are increasingly starting to resemble arcade games. The technology that drives these machines are akin to a Nintendo 64, so that means they run 3D, but there’s a lot of 2 dimensional art involved. I recently made a Lord of the Rings game, for example. I painted a lot of matte painting-like backgrounds, little symbols that were portraits of characters and weapons, I designed interface elements, I created animations of water crashing over Dark Riders and swords being magically forged. Illustration, graphic design, animation, motion graphics, portraiture, character design are all required. I’m a jack of all trades. I also do some freelance work, mostly for bands and small businesses. Yes, after 8 hours of staring at a computer monitor I want to come home and create in any way that doesn’t involve pixels. I sketch in my sketchbook, take oil painting classes, screenprint t-shirts, embroider, dabble in quilting, and anything where I can apply my art skills in a very tactile and physical way. Something has really been bothering me lately about the new generation of artists out of college who say that they can’t draw without a Wacom tablet. What if the power goes out? Are you still an artist? Paints and pencils teach a lot of things you can’t learn in Photoshop but are still important when painting digitally, and I always want to keep those skills alive. Also I’m starting a business where I sell Alaska themed arts and crafts and it will live at www.aurorabora.com.

Andrew Wyeth, for his ninja like concentration skills. Eyvinde Earl, for his playful and dramatic landscapes, the way he plays with space and proportion. James Jean, for his ability to combine traditional and contemporary skills unexpected ways. Moody, ethereal music gets me going like Sigur Ros, Coco Rosie, Joanna Newsom, and M Ward. My dad (http://www.elarsonstudio.com ) is an amazing artist who also has a veracious artistic appetite, he is the spark that started it all.   My squirrel picture from LBB’s “Black Forest Ham: Episode 2” got a lot of “likes” on Facebook when I posted it. J Right now my biggest fans are my friends, some residents of Petersburg, Alaska, and a lot of the bands that are in my life right now who I sometimes do posters or album art for.

Every day. The problem is I’m learning too many things! Drawing, painting, silkscreening, quilting, embroidery…. I’m kind of a victim of my own curiosity right now when it comes to honing skills. I want to learn all of the things! Photography. It’s something I haven’t tackled yet, but have always been interested in the ability to capture a moment and a mood in an instant. Or, maybe I’d be back in Alaska roaming the docks and repainting fishing boat names on old boats.     I think my greatest goal is to dig down and discover how to create art that is very personal to me, where I have a stronger connection to a deeper idea or feeling that I’m trying to portray, rather than an image that is simply pretty or serves a commercial purpose. I’ve spent a lot of time creating art for others, fairly successfully, but I’m really interested in creating something really special for art’s sake. Mara Baker, a local Chicago artist who does amazing installations that weave big ideas and personal memories together in a way that is striking from far away and up close, she is an inspiration in this endeavor.

It was fun and liberating! I got a concise description of what the characters were like, and their key poses, and then I ran with it! I liked that I didn’t get to see a script or know what the episode was about…being a big fan of LBB, I kind of wanted to be surprised by what was going to happen. And boy, was I. I appreciate the creative freedom I had, but while also receiving the input and suggestions that I needed when I asked. A few emails and phone calls was all it took. I’d work on every episode, but I have to let other artists have a turn. Well, I’m going to be starting a place to sell my Alaskan-inspired wares at the aforementioned www.aurorabora.com. I’m hoping it will at least bring in enough money to fund trips back to Alaska to inspire more art to sell… to fund more trips back to Alaska…to inspire more art to sell. Rinse and repeat.   11. Anything else? I have to say, it was really something to see my art in an animation that Gunnar’s music was a soundtrack for. We literally live together with me working on art in my studio downstairs while he records music in his studio upstairs, and then we’ll take coffee breaks and hash out ideas and give feedback, but this is the first time where our two arts have come together on a project. I love collaborating with other artists and musicians, but when it’s with friends and loved ones the feeling of having done something greater than you could have done by yourself is all the more satisfying. I think Rhodrick and Robin (the real life ones AND the felt ones) are really on to something here. Thanks for the opportunity, guys, I hope to play with you again in the clock shop very soon.

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