Arik Roper
Arik Moonhawk Roper (born 1973) is a freelance illustrator and painter based in New York City. Roper grew up in Richmond, Virginia. His parents both being artists, his creativity was encouraged and he spent a great deal of time during childhood drawing. After graduating from the School of Visual Arts in 1995 specializing in cartooning, illustration, and silk-screening, he began as a freelance storyboard artist for various ad agencies, and a storyboard revisionist for MTV Animation. Later he was able to exercise more creative and personal styles while shifting into the world of music-related visual art  and packaging. He has since developed a name and devoted following creating seminal record covers and screeprint posters for a wide variety of bands including legends such as Earth, Sunn O))), Sleep, Howlin' Rain, High on Fire, The Black Crowes, Kvelertak, and Windhand among many others. His influences include a wide variety of artists and styles ranging from comic art and fantasy art to graphic design and classic illustration. He was a contributing artist to the highly regarded and cutting-edge Arthur Magazine during the mid 2000s. Arik has also designed hand-made screen-printed posters for a pantheon of  concerts and events including Sound on Sound Fest, Roadburn Festival, and Desert Daze Festival. Roper's work encompasses a diverse field of design and distinct style, ranging from graphic black and white illustration, to meticulous lettering and logo design, to rich abstract psychedelic color and landscapes that often seem to exist in their own universe. The imagery springs from the depths of a fertile imagination, invoking psychedelic visions, ancient dreams, and idyllic natural environments. With an interest in mythology, consciousness, psychology, religion and other timeless subjects, Roper mixes the light and the dark within his art to reveal imagery which  is at once strangely unique, distantly familiar and always soaked with an earnestly fantastic aesthetic. His book, Mushroom Magick (Abrams, 2009), is a vividly surreal collection of exotic fungal species from around the world. His art has also appeared in books such as De Gotham City a Metropolis by French Paper Art Club, Juxtapoz New Contemporaries, and Revisionaries: A Decade of Art in Tokion. Some of his clients include: Penguin Books, Stumptown Coffee Roasters, Warner Bros Animation, Sony Records, Magnolia Pictures, Waxwork Records, Galenas Cannabis, Columbia Records, Southern Lord Records, Burton Snowboards and many more. References. Zero 1 Magazine Interview  Interview on Expanding Mind Podcast Hi Lobrow Interview Discography on Discogs