Artist: Buck Reist

Inspired by the various species of owl, Buck Reist illustrates a blithe, imaginative world around these wide-eyed birds. His monochromatic cartoon style provides comical insight, creating an owl with a disposition complemented by the diluted hues of nature.

Buck is a national award-winning collegiate artist from southwest Kansas. He studied fine art at Garden City Community College in Garden City, Kan., where he received four national awards and numerous state honors for his cartoon strips and illustrations in GC3 Media. His artwork will be published in the 2012 edition of Inscape, a literary magazine at Washburn University in Topeka.

Employed at Fine Line Tattoo in Topeka, Buck has been tattooing for almost seven years. As a tattoo artist, he creates a lot of pieces with heavy-emotional meaning. In reference to his current series, he said, “It’s liberating to explore something on the softer side.