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Tori Brenneison is an art education major at Baldwin-Wallace College of Berea, Ohio. She has previously studied at the Maine College of Art. She specializes in figurative illustration and always enjoys portraiture and comics.
Tori began her artistic career at the age of eight months, when she realized that the red, shiny thing her mom used to grade papers could also be used to make wonderful scribbles. To save her sanity (and her students’ homework), Tori’s mother delivered a present of crayons and a sketchbook on Tori’s first birthday. She’s been drawing ever since. Tori’s greatest influences come from the pop movement of the 1960s, especially artists Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein and Mel Ramos. She is also effected by Japanese anime and manga (comics) and the influence they have had on the United States. She feels that her choice in music also influences her art—bands such as Head Automatica, Weezer, Cute is What we Aim For, Hot Hot Heat, and The Who can be found on her iPod at all times. |
About T.L.A.B.:
Tastes Like A Biscuit dotcom was founded in 2000, Tori’s first year of high school. It was during this time that Tori started attending anime conventions to sell her art. The domain also hosted several role-playing games and fansites created by Tori and her friends.
By the time of her graduation in 2004, TLAB hosted a digital portfolio and biography and had won design awards in Cuyahoga Community College’s Click! Competition. It was included in her academic portfolio and helped her to gain admission to her first-choice school, the Maine College of Art.
While attending MECA, TLAB served as a place to show off her skills and development as an artist. While not completely abandoning her roots in the anime/manga subculture, she began to gain more interest in pop art and narrative. In turn, she quit attending Japanese culture conventions.
In 2006, Tori returned to Ohio to enter the art education program at Baldwin-Wallace College, and TLAB was revised into a digital portfolio for her illustration. She kept freelancing on the side while working a part-time job and attending school. Also at this time, she was convinced to attend Colossalcon 06, which renewed her interest in Japanese pop culture. (By the way, she is really upset at how irresponsible high-school “weeaboo” are now running [and ruining] the fandom.)
Currently, TLAB serves as a digital illustration portfolio and the host of My Boyfriend’s Basement, an online comic documenting the day-to-day life of Tori and her fiancé, Tristan. Tori has since pared-down on part-time employment to pursue her freelance work, and will graduate from B-W with a degree in studio art and a K-12 teaching license in the spring of 2009.