Theo Ellsworth

First Contact

Monster the Musical

Sea Monsters Love Boats

Fast Asleep on the Fish's Back

A Quiet Monster

I've been paying too much attention to painterly painter types lately so it's time to mix it up a little. Theo Ellsworth's work is grounded in the comics aesthetic. In fact he does comics, in addition to stand alone framed art pieces. He's probably better known for the comics work anyway, having a 15 page story selected by Neil Gaiman for the 2010 issue of Best American Comics. But hey, it's all art. What makes his work stand out is a little difficult to pin down. His drawing style seems to draw from a grab bag of traditional historic sources in addition to the more obvious modern ones. To my eye there are suggestions of Mayan, Aztec, Celtic and Old Norse imagery. All of this comes about intuitively of course and is not being overtly referenced. But it all comes together through Mr. Ellsworth's unique and humorous surrealism, replete with spacemen, monsters and other curious creations.
Check out his website: thoughtcloudfactory.com
Follow his blog: theoellsworth.blogspot.com
or browse through his Flickr page.