Jacob Livengood

Jacob Livengood starts out with basic shapes and then colors in a piece by using the tip of his brush and tiny dots of paint. His works are often bright and, on first glance, cheery. But if you look closer, you can sometimes catch the gorier, darker or deeper side of Livengood’s imagination.

“An Eager Disposition,” the art on the cover of CityBeat this week, is one of seven in Livengood’s Consequences Of series. “They are these seemingly happy characters,” Livengood said, “but there’s a back story…. Each one represents different consequences of certain actions. You know, like the consequences of being greedy— stuff like that.”

The smiling character on the cover represents the consequence of being overly cheerful. The character, Livengood explains, is ornate, detailed and somewhat in-your-face and over-the-top.

“Just like being too cheery, it can be annoying to people,” he said.

The unique dot technique Livengood uses is similar to traditional Aboriginal dot paintings, but when the young artist first started doing it, he had no idea where he’d seen the look; he just knew he enjoyed it.

“I like my twist on it,” he said. “It’s definitely a modern take on the aboriginal style.”