Artistic Practice
I grew up as a younger sibling eagerly watching my brother on the computer, begging for my turn at our random selection of cereal box games, Mavis Beacon’s typing lessons or Roller Coaster Tycoon. In class, I drew rainbow patterns on all my worksheets and put way too much detail into any art project. Later, I turned this penchant for rainbows, patterns, and video games into a colourful art practice.
My practice has a few different forms that branch out from my interests as a kid. As a painter I craft pixel art collages that I assemble using video game assets with pixel graphics. These collages are whimsical and nonsensical, featuring iconic characters in fantastical scenes with vibrant colours. My love of pixels and rainbows manifested itself in my Pixelated Pathways series which features rounded pixels following gridded pathways in flowing gradients.
In my drawing practice, I create floating architectural illustrations with Labyrinthine pathways in isometric perspective. These pieces focus on the grid and repetitive patterns, they use fun colour schemes often inspired by food. My love of detail manifested itself in abstract organic ink illustrations. The forms are inspired by plant and sea-life, and microbes such as fungi and bacteria.
The dominant themes in my work are colour, joy, nostalgia and pattern. My work often has digital imagery, but is decidedly hand-made. This is important to me, as the act of hand-making my artwork is crucial to my practice. I love sinking tremendous amounts of time and effort into my pieces. I do things the long way because I enjoy it and I have more control. I use a ruler and pencil to grid, and I paint things by hand without the help of tape. My processes are repetitive and put me into a meditative state of mind that helps with my anxiety.
![MHildebrandt-art on demand 5.4-pic.jpg](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/442abb_6167d03a3f064787957da9a8a859bf8b~mv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_600,h_577,al_c,q_80,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,enc_auto/MHildebrandt-art%20on%20demand%205_4-pic.jpg)
Art on Demand 5.4 show
![Toronto Comiccon 2023 Setup.jpg](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/442abb_549b8e27ec134922b90c26a77a812cc9~mv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_600,h_608,al_c,q_85,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,enc_auto/Toronto%20Comiccon%202023%20Setup.jpg)