Ted Kim

Alaska illustrator Ted Kim is known for his incredibly intricate, textured drawings. Kim was born in Hawaii and moved to Anchorage at the age of 2 when his father took a job with Reeve Aleutian Airlines. He graduated from West High School and tried college briefly. “Basically, I dropped out. Skateboarding was taking over my life. Then, when I was 25, I blew out my knee from skateboarding.” While recovering from his injury, Ted picked up a pen and began drawing at a feverish pace.

His work rapidly evolved into highly detailed drawings of animals and vehicles that seemed to be visiting from the kind of dystopian future envisioned by cyberpunk science fiction writers. This is one in which environmental degradation and humanity’s obsession with technology have overpowered the natural world. Yet Kim’s drawings always maintained a fundamentally hopeful, whimsical quality that is both friendly and welcoming.