American-based artist Micah Lidberg creates complex illustrations laced with movement, humour and fanciful characters.
With a love for nature, colour and the absurd, Micah illustrates hyper-detailed intersections of the world around us, coloured with his unique and often twisted imagination.
His work garnered the attention of Lacoste, which led to his collaboration on their 2012 summer line, consisting of polo shirts and sneakers.
His illustrations and commercial works have been featured on everything from the pages of the New York Times and Nylon Magazine to album artwork, posters, book covers and typography.
Micah’s frenzied, wild characters form twisted tableaus with hidden narratives as they play within the surreal world which the artist has created, coming to life as you dive into his land of complex psychedelia, colour and fun.
Brent Randall: The amount of detail in your work is infinite, every time I see a piece of yours, it’s almost like a Where’s Waldo or Animalia search for hidden gems. Is your process organic in its development or do you set out and plan those hidden, humorous elements early on?
Micah: Well, it’s a little bit of both. Before I set out to start working on a piece, I imagine what the general layout is going to be. In that way, I do plan an environment for hidden gems to live in. However, all the little moments and stories don’t become a reality until I get down to the actual, final drawing. They take form when I begin to address each little square inch of the piece.
Brent Randall: What are some of the challenges you face when working on collaborative projects?
Micah: When two unique parties come together, it can be hard to align their separate visions into a cohesive idea. Communication, both in style and frequency, can either help or hinder the project’s progress. The major challenge is usually time. Everyone involved has competing schedules and I considered it a small miracle when anything is completed.
Brent Randall: Tell me about your process. Do you start with physical pencil sketches or is all of your work digital from the very start?
Micah: My work has two phases, a physical phase and a digital phase. Almost everything I make is completely drawn by hand on paper. All the originals drawings are produced in black and white and then get scanned so they can be arranged, cleaned up, and coloured.
Brent Randall: Do you have any particular typography dislikes or quirks.
Micah: I have a funny and special place in my heart for monospaced fonts. I really like boring, logical, rational systems. If it’s not that, I really enjoy their counter part, like big emotional and illustrative typefaces. Everything in between those two categories often loses my interest, unless the balance is perfectly mixed.
Brent Randall: If you could have one of your pieces printed or displayed on any medium, of your choice, no matter how big or small—What and where would it be?
Micah: It might be rear-projected on to a giant piece of glass. I’m not sure. I see most of my pieces through my imagination. The closest simulation of that would be through the projection of pure light. I would say a hologram as well, however, my work lives in a strange world between 2D space and some implied 3D space. I don’t know if it’d look quite right if it were translated into a literal 3D world.
Brent Randall: Your works are loaded with colour, movement and humour, often set in an acidic kind of wilderness.
So, Micah...did you take heaps of LSD in the woods when you were younger?
Micah: [Laughs] I’ve been asked many times if I do drugs. And it’s usually by people who’ve had experience with hallucinogens. The boring but honest answer is no. It might be a bad idea for me...
All of my work comes from my sober imagination. I’m not sure what an influenced imagination would be like for me. It might be a little too much.
I think my interest in the kind of work I do comes mostly from my childhood, or at least; the spirit of my childhood.
I loved going out and playing in the woods and being mesmerised by all the things going on around me. Have you ever turned over a log in the the woods, Brent?
Brent Randall: Yeah of course. I was born and raised in Australia, half of my childhood was spent either running through the bush looking for snakes, catching frogs and poking bugs...Or being bitten, stung or chased by the creatures that I shouldn't have poked, caught or looked at.
Micah: The moment we do, an entire micro-universe of bugs, creatures and life goes scattering everywhere. It’s kind of like biological fireworks. That’s the feeling I’m after in my work.
Interview by Brent Randall | Sketches by Micah Lidberg
Micah Lidberg Website
theartofmadeline
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blakekathryn
