About The Artist

Photo credit: ©2009 Tony Burgard
Where I come from:
Originally from North
Dakota, I graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Moorhead State
University in 1998. From there I moved on to work as a computer graphics
artist, freelance illustrator, and newspaper graphics designer/illustrator.
In 2001 I uprooted myself and headed west in search of new horizons
(and more trees!) to Seattle.
What I am:
An illustrator and storyteller.
The two are intertwined for me; storybook and cover illustrations are
my first love, with comic art and animation coming a close second. I
love the deceptive simplicity of the Zen and Asian aesthetic, the crisp
clean lines of ink on paper, shapes and pattern. I don't like telling
people what they should see in my work; I believe that every piece should
tell its own story without outside interference.
Where I'm going:
I hope to refine both
my abstract 'blackwork' style and my illustration skills, ultimately
for the goal of illustrating covers for fantasy and genre novels.
Along with this and the usual collection of tag-ends of a hundred
unfinished ideas, I also exhibit my work yearly at Sakuracon and Yaoicon,
and hope to add more conventions as circumstances permit.

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