Featured Artist: Loriesque
Here, kitty kitty kitty! We’re furly confident that you’ll love this week’s Featured Artist Loriesque. If you adore all things cat, then you’ll be pawstively delighted by the bold and colorful kitty-inspired designs brought to life by this week’s artist.
Whether you’re on the prowl for that perfect “derp” expression, or you just can’t get enough of those furry friends who look more like gremlins than cats, Loriesque is here to whisker you away into the world of, well, whiskers!
Lori hails from beautiful Chico, California and admits to being “an artist all my life.” Not only does she pursue art in her personal life, but she is fortunate to design professionally as well and has helped create licensed apparel for popular brands for over 15 years. Like her bright and lively art, Lori is full of laughter and loves living life to the fullest. She shares that one of her favorite pastimes is “swimming with goggles and pretending I am flying underwater” or maintaining the “indoor jungle in my living room.”
She finds inspiration for her art everywhere and loves to sketch “wild future ideas in my sketch bible” aka her beloved sketchbook. She laughs that her style is more like “many styles” and that she considers herself “multiple artists in one.” This flexibility allows her to constantly try new things and keep evolving. She teases, “It's my ADHD brain enhancing my creativity.” She reveals that she and her dad both experience Pareidolia, or the ability to see recognizable images in random textures and patterns. She laughs that she was once even inspired by dog slobber on a window and confesses, “I drew it of course.” However, being able to find inspiration everywhere means she is constantly working on something new. She jokes that she is always “getting distracted by shiny new things” and her home is littered with half-finished projects or new ideas for the future.
In addition to her creative job, Lori has been selling her personal art in local art markets. However, her goal is to create a full-length animation to submit to film festivals; she is starting with short clips that she posts to her Instagram or TikTok. To her, creativity is “pictures, colors, shapes, sound, a swirl of activity, paint, or anything really. It's making something with your hands, with your mind, with your friends. It's a thing where doing it creates the joy.” She encourages other artists to form an art community and wishes she had “created my art community earlier” because the connection with other creative people is beneficial and inspirational to her art.
