Nathan Motzko

THE ODDLY-SHAPED CHARACTERS OF NATHAN MOTZKO

Young illustrator Nathan Motzko creates strangely tangled characters, using simple patterns, with sketches deriving from specific sounds, especially instrumental hip-hop samples and ambient music.

“Music helps create a picture in my head of oddly shaped people that have awkward posture and droopy faces. I work a lot with shapes and patterns in my illustrations because the look of contorted body postures combined with these elements creates a movement in my work.”

He is currently studying Illustration and Graphic Design at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. He also takes inspiration from the works of Barry Mcgee, Bill Rebholz, and Margaret Kilgallen.

Some describe my work as beautiful, dark, confusing, and even disturbing at times. But it always evokes some emotion. The images are dense and packed with symbolism. Thought-provoking, a kind of visual meditation. Often depicting some kind of painful experience, but the idea behind it is not to bring people down, but rather to find healing in the idea that one can make a difficult life experience and turn it into something creative that others can connect within their own unique way, hopefully fostering a kind of “emotional solidarity” in the acknowledgment of the diversity and complexity of our collective human experience.