Malachi Maloney liquidwerx Illustration Location: USA Language(s):
English Member Since: May 2004 Last Updated: 27 June 2007 Portfolio Views: 10115 Chosen as Favorite: 8
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*The fallowing bio was written by my good friend Chris Cunico as the accompanying text for my gallery in the July 2007 issue of Heavy Metal magazine.*
BIO
It has taken Malachi Maloney 29 years to get here. So far he has worked professionally for many companies including Broken Halos Comics, DC Comics and German Role-Playing Game publishers Nackter Stahl as a lead illustrator. This big, feisty, smiling bastard has literally been around the world and back to carve out his little piece of the art world. Now that he has achieved the lifelong dream of appearing in Heavy Metal, his journey to these hallowed pages will illuminate the creativity, style, technique and passion with which he imbues his work. Better yet, it might explain how in the world this guy from Tucson came up with this stuff.
Malachi got off to a rough and tumble start in the not so scenic urban landscape of Southern Arizona. His mother enthusiastically encouraged the drawing lessons that a close family friend generously offered, as he may have had minor trouble sitting still as a toddler. Skip ahead through some growth spurts and shoe sizes to the ultra-hip world of Dungeons and Dragons, and the great fantasy artists came to his view. So began a lifelong appreciation for the works of Boris, Larry Elmore, Keith Parkinson and the incomparable Frank Frazetta, artists whose influence has run omnipresent through the conscious and sub-conscious of his work. Then, similar to how any young artist in the nineties might have evolved, he graduated from D&D and moved onto anime, emulating and appreciating the work of artists like Masamune Shirow and Katsuhiro Otomo. Their technical skill, intricate backgrounds, and precisely engineered machinery have shown up in one way or another in much of Malachi’s work to this day.
Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately depending on the perspective) an expulsion from local schools and acceptance into one of those “alternative” schools for bad kids took his focus off art and put it on survival. A family move to Thailand, another one to Mexico and yet a third back to Arizona left him as far away from a professional art career as one could get. Thankfully, after some encouragement from his better half, a little investment from his family and the realization that working in a Tucson seafood dive would never land him in Heavy Metal, he got his head out of his arse and got to work full time in art.
This colorful journey has inspired Malachi to create art that draws from all of his experiences. He works wonderfully with traditional media, but he has also harnessed the limitless potential of digital creation as well. He can paint classic pin-ups and then twist them to show some grit. He can blend photo-realistic paintings with surreal backgrounds and make it seem like they actually belong together. He pays homage to the original masters, but adds his own unique spin on loan from a life spent in all corners of the world and on both sides of the tracks. And he loves drawing superheroes.
Perhaps the most refreshing aspect of his art, though, is that he approaches creativity with the work ethic of a draft horse and the humility of a student. Constantly striving for knowledge of art and perfection of technique, his fierce determination and near obsessive definition of quality evince the mood of a man eternally grateful for his lot in life. It seems that he wants to make sure the universe understands his appreciation for his current station by making the most of his gifts. The result is consistent development as an artist, ever changing material and technique and one great big goofy smile.
Malachi lives in Southern Arizona with his fiancée Amy and dogs, Rita and Elvis. More of his work is available at: www.liquidwerx.com
