Allison Bamcat is a Boston illustrator with an affinity for confectionary and phantoms. She loves drawing and painting portraits of spirits and strangely cute characters. With her love of candy and neon colors, her creatures come across more sweet than demonic.

Bamcat grew up in Southern California with her family, attending school in the valley and attending art classes at the California State University on weekends. Her interest in art and characters began with Sanrio and Sailormoon, later turning to anime and darker comics throughout high school. After moving to Boston in 2000, she went on to win several Boston Globe Scholastic Art Awards as well as several awards and scholarships through her high school.  She graduated high school a year early at 16 and applied to art school. She was accepted into the Communication Design program at MassArt.

Bamcat studied at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design and received her BFA in Illustration. She is currently working as a footwear designer at Converse with a concentration in kids and teen footwear. She works as a freelance artist in her spare time and has been featured in many galleries throughout the country. She has been published in books locally and internationally, and her work makes frequent appearances in local publications such as the Boston Phoenix. From tattoo art to paintings to comics to murals to band graphics, her work is always evolving.

A repeating theme that strings many of her paintings together is a bright palette of color and a curious kind of melancholy and nostalgia brought on by her use of childhood desserts and not-quite kid-friendly characters. While the works are bright and colorful, some have a very dark underlying theme which can be difficult to detect. But the overall feel is a rainbow world full of Lisa Frank-esque color schemes and cute, creepy monsters.

Bamcat is available for custom work and loves to get involved in local projects and collaborations.