About

Welcome to Michael Creative!

Hi, I’m Michael Lardizabal, the artist behind Michael Creative. Real original name, I know, but it’s very true; creativity is my life. I’m a self-taught painter, print maker, and merch designer currently based in Chattanooga, TN. I grew up in a military household, so we moved a lot, but my formative teen years were in Clarksville, TN where I was guitarist and singer in a metal band that later built my own guitar and voice teaching business. However, some medical issues made me put down the music as my main creative endeavor, and in that vacuum of creative passion I found art. It was first just a thing I did to survive the emotional turmoil of losing my musical dreams, but it grew into a form of expression that brought big dreams of its own.

My current style tends to be a mix of cartoon, fantasy, and anime inspired original characters mixed with surreal and abstract elements. The cast of characters is growing, but Square Dude, is my lead guy and shows up in most of work. When I first created him, he looked really scared (you can see that early version of him in the picture to the left), I think because I was really scared to pursue art at the time, so he became this symbol of Fear. The thing is, as I worked on my relationship with Fear, Squared Dude did, too. Now, we both see Fear as a friend. Not something trying to stop us from life, but something that, like a GPS, points us toward the things that matter. It’s scary to start the business, ask the girl/guy out, paint something you’ve never painted, etc., but that fear isn’t saying, “don’t do it,” it’s saying, “This matters a lot to you, so press forward, just do it with care.” I tend to do my prints and merch in Procreate on my iPad.

My paintings are almost always acrylic, though I sometimes mix in soft pastels and ink.

Thanks for checking out my site. It’s a work in progress, but I’m glad to have my own little place of the internet to share what I do and what I love.

All the best to you,

Michael