Michael McAfee is a self-taught traditional visual artist and digital animator who produces stunning works informed by retro-futurism and pop surrealism. Looking back on his creative journey, he tells STIR, “I went to university for film, where I intended to pursue a career as a cinematographer, but dropped out in the middle of my second year when I found out I didn’t like being on a film set. I have always been fascinated by animation—I created stop-motion animation as a child with clay figures, and before that I made flip-books with stacks of post-it notes. When I got a computer, I created animations with Adobe Flash and posted them online to websites like Newgrounds.”
It was not until McAfee was contacted by Tycho, an artist he respected, during his first year at university, that it finally clicked that he could make a career out of creating art on the computer. Explaining their creative relationship, he says, “He asked me to work with him on animations for his upcoming album. Tycho is a Grammy-nominated musician, but before that he was a well-known designer called…