Menagerie by Laura Bifano

I’m getting goosebumps just by looking at the fabulous collection of prints by artist and illustrator Laura Bifano, who is based in British Columbia. The painting is part of the Menagerie series, a series of 10 paintings which was unveiled at a gallery in Calgary, and I can’t wait to see the rest of them.

I’ve always loved retro-styled pixel based art of all sorts, so I was really taken in with what Laura did for the collection. Transforming pixel art into something that’s distinctively handmade via painting is ingenious, more so when it involves animals (in a natural setting at that!) I’m truly blown away. I’ve done a little Q+A with Laura on the collection, so read on!

What was it that inspired you to create these beautiful pixel-based animal series?
It was a long time in the making. I grew up on the coast of British Columbia, and as a kid, I used to spend weeks out of the summer staying with my Family in logging camps out in the middle of the woods.
I think that being exposed to this amazing, epic setting gave me a deep appreciation of nature and animal life later on. Of course, I just hated it at the time. So naturally, as a self-entitled introverted little kid, I spent about 70% of the time playing super mario bros and drawing and the other 30% complaining. I was always kind of mesmerized by the side-scroller pixel aesthetic and how game designers were able to convey so much using so little. This series just kind of naturally evolved from those two fascinations.

You initially trained as an illustrator, and you’re a wonderful artist as well — did your training in illustration helped you in fleshing out ideas for the collection?
Yeah, I went through the Alberta College of Art and Design’s Illustration program. The professors put a lot of emphasis on strong rendering skills and compositional design, which definitely helped me become a better draftsman.
Illustration is all about communicating a narrative, so having a story is always a priority when I’m creating a new piece. Even when working on a simple image, I try to imply that there’s lot more going on than what you see in the picture.

I noticed that the animals are based on pixels, while their surroundings remain natural – is there a message you’d like to portray?
It was really more of an aesthetic choice. I suppose I just liked the juxtaposition of having these very hard, geometric shapes amongst soft, flowing, organic forms. It makes the animals seem a little more unnatural and out-of-place.

Do you have a favorite among the series?
If I had to pick one, I think that it would have to be the Japanese Macaques bathing in the hot-springs. Painting a bunch of little monkey dudes hanging out together couldn’t help be anything but enjoyable. It’s also a winter scene, so it was a fun challenge having to limit my color palette to five or six hues. I also got to experiment with painting transparencies and foggy-mist effects, which is always a good time.

I’m really stoked with how that piece turned out.

What’s next for you?
Mostly just trying to keep busy!
I’m currently working on a few illustrations based on well-known idioms. I’m also working on putting together another series of polygonal paintings based on mythology. And there’s a few shows coming up at Gallery 1988 in LA that I’m really excited to be a part of.

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Happy weekend everyone, and if you’re in KL – I’ll be at Urbanscapes marketplace scoping out the scene tomorrow!