High Artist Spotlight: Goldfinger
Pete Malaschitz AKA Goldfinger is an Illustrator Graphic Designer who was born in London Ontario Canada. He attended Sheridan college for a year to study classical animation. He learned amazing things about art, animation and character design. Losing interest in animation he soon moved to Whistler Canada and started airbrushing t-shirts for a few years. He gradually started illustrating and began graphic design at ToadHall Studios in Whistler. He has been working for Toad hall for the last 31 years. With many influences over his life time starting probably with his fascination of dinosaurs as a young lad. Which Moved on to his infatuation with Star Wars. As a teenager in the 80's he became obsessed with skateboarding and it's culture. Loving the art and ads in Thrasher Magazine. He drew inspiration from artists like PusHead, X'n'O, and his favorite Jim Philips. he loved the skateboard graphics and always admired the great diversity of art. Anything goes. Art with attitude. Other influences include 60's hippie art where he discovered the awesomeness of Rick Griffin and Gilbert Shelton. He dabbled a few years in Tattooing which started back in 1989 as a flash artist. He is inspired by tattoo art and is amazed at how far tattooing has come. Over the last many years working at Toad Hall where he learned to do prep art for t-shirts, stickers etc.. He soon learned how to apply art in a digital world. He began to combine his illustrations with digital text, shapes, vectoring creating crisp and clean Logos, sticker designs, t-shirt designs etc... Pete enjoys the outdoors, hanging with his dog, but mostly enjoys working on new ideas and creating new art. He loves to illustrate mainly in a cartoon style with some cute and cuddly mixed with a little lowbrow attitude.
We recently caught up with Goldfinger after High Art 2023 to learn more about his most recent inspirations:
Where do you find your creative inspiration?
My surroundings
Why do you do what you do?
I love to Illustrate and create.
What art/artist do you most identify with?
Lowbrow
What themes do you pursue the most?
Monsters and cute girls
What role does an artist have in society?
A voice of how he perceives the world
What is your artistic outlook on life?
As long as I have eyes I will keep creating.
What advice would you give to your younger self?
Stay in school.
Do you listen to music while you are creating? If yes, share the song and artist that you listen to while creating art.
Weird fishes by Radiohead
What's the best thing about being an artist?
Being able to create something each day.
What is your dream project?
Illustrator for children's books.