Who Steers The Ghost Boat?

Hello! My name is Abayomi Louard-Moore, and I’m a Philadelphia-based cartoonist & illustrator. In my work I strive to build narratives and histories that spark in the viewer a recognition of some truth about self, or the world. Storytelling has been a powerful and essential tool for humans seeking to understand, as well as seeking to escape. My goal is to use effective storytelling devices in my work to help people do just that. Even though I’m a professional illustrator and cartoonist today, pencil and paper hadn’t always been the tools with which I told those stories. As a child, my favorite toys and stuffed animals became the actors in my stories, and the couch and coffee table became the world that my actors lived in. I used my toys to tell myself stories untethered by the constraints and pains of my real world. 

Today, storytelling has become an important component of both my creative identity and creative work, and these two elements are innately intertwined for me. Through art-making, journaling, therapy, and revisiting inspirations from childhood, I’ve worked to gain a deeper understanding of myself, my history, and what drives me. I believe that through taking ownership of my own story, I’ll be able to connect with viewers through my work, because in the individual story lies the universal. In better understanding myself, I am able to feed my creative work with themes, symbols, and techniques that can speak to the viewer.

Hidden worlds, dream worlds, nature, spirituality, and fantasy are just a few of the themes that inform my work. I play in the toy box of mark making, and explore the worlds of color, shape, and space. My goal in creation is to connect to others like me, and inspire a sense of nostalgia, magic, and whimsy.