Hello, my name is Bishop Taylor and I am an Animator, Illustrator, and Graphic Designer. Typically in my work I try to keep a refined cartoonish style that feels grounded in reality. This can be seen in the subtle movements of my animations and the themes I attempt to put in my work. I will openly admit with my animation and illustration work I tend to pursue a sense of whimsy akin to the illustrators of yesteryear like Beatrix Potter and Arthur Rackham. However, I am not without my modern inspirations. Specifically, I find Edison Yan to be an individual of a great deal of talent. When making my own work I keep in mind the work of these individuals. I also absolutely adore the work of Don Bluth and I try to keep it in mind when pursuing my own animations.

 

    Outside of animation, I’m an avid game designer (of all kinds, though one could argue I specialize in board game design), comic artist, and writer. The focus in graphic design has often helped in these endeavors as they heavily depend upon my ability to properly structure and organize art and information. I mention these other interests to bring up the fact that I’m a believer in cohesion between disciplines. Whenever I sit down to work on a personal or professional project I always think about how the project will synergize with other previous related projects in an attempt to make work that is continuously cohesive.

 

   I remember reading about the concept of Wagner's Gesamtkunstwerk some odd years ago. The Gesamtkunstwerk is the idea of perfect cohesion between multiple art forms to create something better than the sum of all its parts. It is typically applied to Wagner opera, however I believe this idea can bleed over into our modern fields of entertainment. I adore animation because it has the highest potential to truly produce something I believe to be Gesamtkunstwerk-esque. The music, the art, and the writing can all combine perfectly. It shouldn’t be any wonder I’m interested in a number of fields when there is such potential for cohesive entertainment experiences. 

 

As you can see, I try to do it all to produce such experiences. Wouldn’t you like to see them?