Arik Moonhawk Roper (born 1973) is a freelance illustrator and painter based in New York City. Roper grew up in Richmond, Virginia. His parents both being artists, his creativity was encouraged and he spent a great deal of time during childhood drawing. After graduating from the School of Visual Arts in 1995 specializing in cartooning, illustration, and silk-screening, he began as a freelance storyboard artist for various ad agencies, and a storyboard revisionist for MTV Animation. Later he was able to exercise more creative and personal styles while shifting into the world of music-related visual art and packaging. He has since developed a name and devoted following creating seminal record covers and screeprint posters for a wide variety of bands including legends such as Earth, Sunn O)))