work samples | RIBBitr artist in residency PROGRAM
Full portfolios can be seen at michaelpisano.com and pisanofilms.com.
2020 - 2021 | BUNKER
A series of 3 game booklets with original writing (co-authored with Matthew Kopel) and illustrations (pen, ink, acrylic). 201 pages (each 8.5 x 11”) total. More info here.
From the fertile ash of climate catastrophe sprouts a new ecofantasy utopia: utopia populated by earth witches tending regenerative potion gardens, by lordless knights who pledge to serve the woods, by smiths crafting reclaimed plastics into magical armor. The world is plagued with lingering anthropogenic toxins and the monsters born from them. What heroes will rise to remediate the land and build the next world?
2021 - 2023 |CRAWLER
A series of four game booklets with original writing and illustrations (pen, ink, pencil, collage). 194 pages (each 8.5 x 5.5”) total. More info here.
In a fantasy world where raw magic is extracted from the earth like a fossil fuel—unsustainably, dangerously, and for the profit of billionaire death cultists—you are a member of the Black Shields: an order of anti-extractionist resistance fighters.
The Shields aren't afraid to get their hands dirty. You've blown up a pipeline before, and you'd gladly do it again because you care about the future of your world. It's not a question of if raw magic will spill from pipelines and freighters to transform local wildlife into bloodthirsty abominations—it's a question of when.
And yet, extraction workers aren’t your enemies. Neither are the towns the pipelines run through. And what sustainable power source will keep the world running?
2023 | LITTLE FOREST [TEST FOOTAGE REEL]
A diversity of ideas, identities, and living species are all essential to resilience on a changing planet. I am using this short video of highlight footage to develop an in-progress documentary project, Little Forest, for which I’m seeking conservation narratives around the diversity of life in soil and undergrowth. In caring for the tiny life that surrounds us, we care for ourselves. We also stand to learn about collaboration, altruism, and the joy of interconnectedness.
2016 | SEVEN VOYAGES
Artist Book of original illustrations chronicling the adventures of Sinbad (pen, ink).
