L. Nichols was born and raised in rural southwest Louisiana and went on to earn a bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering and a master's degree in Media Arts and Sciences, both from MIT. L. has a unique voice that utilizes the language of science and engineering to add an additional layer of meaning and complexity to his work. Nichols also incorporates elements of comics to turn his paintings into broader narrative forms. L. lives and works as an illustrator, comic artist, graphic designer, educator and sometime blacksmith with his wife and their two children in New York's Hudson Valley. He has been published in over a dozen comics and art books.