Hi!

My Name is Giuseppe Nikola Boyd-Bonanno, but everyone just calls me Tahoe! I’m a 2D artist, animator, and writer in love with Art Nuevo, mechs, and horror. I grew up bouncing between Lake Tahoe (hence the name!) , California, and the Western slope in Colorado—all the while ravenously absorbing the artistic inclinations of my Father, a lover of fine arts and architectet, and my mother, a certified badass, craftswoman, and witch! My inspirations range from Rembrandt to Patrick Nagel. You’ll probably notice However, my work focuses on the beauty of powerful things (or the power of beautiful things!) Whether it’s a quite girl facing a monster in a dark back alley or a massive mechanical killing machine piloted by a chunk of viciously beautiful divinity, the art I love most is about that sense of the sublime. I’ve loved these images since I was tiny—they helped a boy too scared to talk to the checkout allies attendant believe that one day he could achieve his dreams. It worked—and now I want to do it for others.

Professionally, I’ve spent the last few years with Tonari Animation, where I wrote the Anime Survival Kit and worked on three movies, dozens of shows, and several music videos, with the released shows being indexed on Tonari’s website. When I’m not working, I’m usually still drawing. Failing that, I’m reading Brandon Sanderson’s latest novel, playing Soulsborne game, or—if the opportunity allows—wandering around Tokyo’s graveyards late at night. That’s when all the best ideas come.

Before becoming a full-time artist, I earned degrees in Philosophy and Psychology (Magna Cum Laude) from CU Boulder, where I also gained some lab experience studying neural networks, and even got the keys to a supercomputer (no, it’s not as interesting as it sounds.) I’ve had a lifelong love of learning and teaching—the more esoteric the knowledge, the better! I think a wide base of knowledge makes for a sense of gravity and realism in art that can’t be achieved by hyper-focus on pure technical skill, and it imparts and empathy for others that’s far to rare in many avenues of professional art.