April showers? We're skipping straight to the flowers with this month's logo
CBC Arts | Posted: April 1, 2019 3:45 PM | Last Updated: April 1, 2019
Get to know Lisa LaRose, our logo artist for April
Every month, we feature a new take on the CBC Arts logo created by a Canadian artist. Check out our previous logos!
Frost warnings be damned — our profile pic this April is a massive bouquet of spring flowers. And the artist who designed it, Lisa LaRose, is blooming nuts for painting posies.
"My art practice is to paint things I like," she tells CBC Arts, and while those things might include skeletons or anthropomorphic toads or Mexican wrestlers (and the latter happen to be the subject of her new, Kickstarter-backed comic, Rise of the White Phoenix), right this moment, the Vancouver-based illustrator is all about flora. "I take a lot of inspiration from nature," she says. "I find flowers, leaves and bubbles particularly delightful and relaxing to paint, so they seem to be showing up in a lot of my art right now." She shares a little more in this email questionnaire.
Name: Lisa LaRose
Age: 29
Homebase: Vancouver
Let's talk about your design! What inspired your take on the CBC Arts logo?
Spring, especially in Vancouver, is full of blooming and budding flowers, so I wanted to do a design that was bursting with flowers and greenery. I love that the plants are both contained by and escaping from the logo.
You've got to tell us about your new comic, The Rise of the White Phoenix. (It's fully funded on Kickstarter? Congratulations!) What inspired the story?
Rise of the White Phoenix is about a young girl who wants to become a Luchadora (a Mexican wrestler) even though her father does not approve.
It's a story about fighting to live your dreams. I feel like there aren't enough stories out there about girls who punch and kick, so I decided to make one of my own. The Kickstarter is for print copies of book one, and it will be running until April 4. (Yes, we are fully funded! Hurray!)
What's the art project you're most proud of?
I'm really proud of my current series of acrylic paintings, The Bizarre and Colourful. I'm used to working for others and changing art styles to suit the needs of a project, so it has been a wonderful change to simply focus on my own creator voice and lean into all the things I am best at.
Who's the last artist you discovered online?
I recently have been admiring the sculpture work of the French artist BibsLovelypam.
What's your favourite place to see art?
Instagram. It's where I can keep up with many of my fellow artists and also discover lots of new work.
What work of art do you wish you owned?
I would love to own some original artwork by illustrator Wylie Beckert.
Where can we see more from you?
I am always working on creating new paintings, illustrations and comics. To see more of my completed work you can check out my website. If you want to see art as I create it, I post works-in-progress to my social media platforms: Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.