Today we’d like to introduce you to Eris Sharon.
Eris, please kick things off for us by telling us about yourself and your journey so far.
Art isn’t something I do; It’s an identity.
I’m not sure when I began as an artist. I think it’s a lot like sexual orientation; you identify with it early on, but it continues to shift and change throughout your life.
Mine is a story of an introvert turned fake extrovert. I understood I was different from a young age. I was a weird kid and never good at following convention. Growing up I used the label ‘artist’ as a free pass to abandon it. Yet I was ashamed of being different. No one understood me and I couldn’t understand how everyone could be so boring and similar. So, for the most part I was a recluse, spending time alone with my thoughts, some paper, and something to draw or paint with, or build with my hands.
I graduated college with more confidence and improved my ability to ‘act normal.’ I thought graphic and web design would satiate my artist soul. However, it wasn’t enough. Design is meant to be digested easily and understood instantly. I missed the liberty offered by fine art to explore and communicate intense emotion, beauty, and passion, and most importantly — something complex. So, I recently turned my efforts and focus to fine arts and building it into a career. My dream is creating work that is so unique, influential, and profound it will be included into an art museum one day.
Can you give our readers some background on your art?
My latest artwork incorporates sculptural elements built onto two-dimensional paintings using clay, similar to reliefs in old European architecture. My intention is to blur the lines between sculpture and painting and incorporate non-traditional mediums into fine art painting. Since I come across so much copy and paste in the digital design world, it is also important to me that my artwork cannot be easily produced on a computer or replicated. I add several layers to each painting and use a wide range of materials. My artwork is intense, passionate, bright, extremely emotive, and complex.
My colors and line are strongly influenced by fauvist and post-fauvist artists Henri Matisse, Henri de Toulouse Lautrec, Van Gogh, Pablo Picasso, and Paul Gauguin. While Renaissance master painters Michelangelo, Raphael, and Leonardo Da Vinci (basically the ninja turtles) guide my style in portraits and figures.
I use my art to share the beauty I see in everything, my passion for life, our natural bodies, waves and the ocean, and to provide my audience with an original story told with color, texture, line, and tone.
Do you think conditions are generally improving for artists? What more can cities and communities do to improve conditions for artists?
I don’t believe the role of artists have changed, so much as our significance and spotlight ebbs and flows as we enter times of peace and times of war.
Today a creative can become a graphic designer, illustrator, story-boarder, video game designer, web designer, interior designer, set designer, Trader Joes sign painter, photographer, and videographer. Famous creatives, award winning writers, and top artists can even become wealthy from their art and creations. However, one can argue that just as many creative jobs existed in the past but served different purposes. And acclaim for fine artists in the past was much more prevalent.
In my opinion one of the biggest threats to artists these days is technology. As much as technology has introduced ‘new’ creative trades and avenues in design, photography, film making, and even fine art — it has also replaced our imagination, filled up our time by allowing us to be ‘more productive’, increased the amount of working we do during the day, decreased our leisure and thought time, decreased or emotional connectivity to each other and the life around us, and reduced originality to smaller, faster, cleaner.
Public places and public art has left the street in the US due to stricter laws and privatization of public spaces. We more rarely than ever share art publicly in our community. Instead, it’s locked away in office buildings, mansions, museums, and galleries. Art needs to be shared and appreciated to thrive. Cities need to build and maintain more public community spaces, and more community art projects and installations to bring humanity, depth, and wonder of art back into our daily lives.
What’s the best way for someone to check out your work and provide support?
I’ve shown my work internationally, in several group shows, a solo exhibit at the Sierra Madre City Hall, and most recently at Beyond the Lines Gallery – Grand Opening Event in Downtown LA.
Please visit my website to see more of my artwork: ErisArtist.com. Follow me on Instagram to see what I’m up to: @erisponsible. And email me if you’re interested in an art piece or commission: [email protected]
Please come experience my work at my upcoming exhibits!
BEYOND THE LINES GALLERY
‘MIX IT UP’
FRIDAY, MAY 18TH 7PM-11PM
SATURDAY, MAY 19TH 7PM-11PM
1150 EAST 12TH STREET UNIT A LOS ANGELES, CA 90021
LOFT AT LIZ’S
‘THREE GRACES’
SATURDAY, SEPT 8TH 7pm-11pm
453 S. LA BREA AVE LOS ANGELES, CA 90036
Contact Info:
- Website: ErisArtist.com
- Phone: (760) 456-9175
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: erisponsible
Image Credit:
All photos taken by Eris Sharon
Getting in touch: VoyageLA is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
