Featured Artist of the Month : Eric Nichols Nov. 2011 | TheArtList - Art & Photo Calls for Visual Artists and Photographers.

Eric Nichols

St. Louis, Missouri

Eric R. Nichols, born in Bethesda, Maryland, spent his early childhood in Decatur, Illinois and moved to St. Louis in 1985. He received his BFA from the Kansas City Art Institute and MFA, from Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. As an educator,

Eric has taught ceramics, sculpture, design II, III and IV for St. Louis Community College. Eric also participated in the development of a shade shelter sculpture known as "Community Leaf", designed for the St. Louis Science Center during the 2007 St. Louis Art Works summer program. Eric has created and installed numerous public and private art commissions, and has participated in national and international juried, group and solo exhibitions. Eric was awarded an artist grant from the Kansas City Artist Coalition to study at the International ceramics studio in Kecskemet, Hungary.

During his travels, a cultivation of new ideas and worldly views influenced his work. Eric was able to work with students from the University of West Hungary, Sopron, sharing artistic theory and practice. At the same time, he worked alongside Jim Leedy, an Internationally known, American Sculptor, along with educators and professional artists from around the world.

Most recently, Eric became a finalist for the second season of the Bravo television show "Work of Art, The Next Great Artist"! Eric is currently living and working in the Benton Park area near the thriving Cherokee Arts District.

His current work is mixed media on paper and panel. Layering two and three-dimensional imagery, Eric formulates transitions to cohesively execute unified compositions. The imagery in his work is not planned, it is discovered through the layering process of shape, line, form and color. Ultimately, Eric is striving for an organic continuity to a mechanical thought process.

How and when did you start creating art?

It all started when I was five in Decatur, Illinois at a small art center next to Millikin University. My mother enrolled me in ceramics classes and I absolutely loved it!

What media and genres do you work in?

I work in all mediums. My current work is mixed media on canvas or panel, mixed media sculpture and ceramic sculpture.

Who or what are your influences?

One of my biggest influences is my son Aiden. In graduate school, we would work on mixed media pieces together on the kitchen floor of my small apartment in South City. His mark making was impeccable and his imagery was soulful. He was around six years old at the time and he still participates in the studio and reminds me to relax and let it happen.

I wanted to combine my busy, somewhat chaotic mechanical background compositions with simple, identifiable, organic images. Understanding that placement and transitions between these two types of images is key to a harmonious composition. “Lucy”, the snake, represents my childhood love and obsession with nature, especially reptiles and amphibians. A flat, dull rock laying perfectly on the ground, represented a doorway to a visual exhibition of color, form, line, movement, variety and reaction that became so addictive to open. I still travel to Arizona, Costa Rica, and many other prime habitats in the U.S. every year to find these amazing animals.

Describe your creative process?

My creative process involves a balance of spontaneity and control. I layer imagery using various mediums and then isolate a form or forms. These isolated forms become areas of dimensional detail. Detail including accentuating color, changing color, shading, highlighting, volume and depth. Sometimes the imagery shows its face with abstraction or recognizable objects while other times it remains non-representational. None of my pieces are preplanned. I start by making something happen and then I start building, destroying, re-building, rotating, multiplying, isolating, refining, and settling. The process never ends.

What are you working on currently?

Cleaning out my studio and downsizing my operation. My obsession with objects and materials and the possible roles they might play in future pieces have led me to the realization that I might be a hoarder. Detachment of the object!

What are your near/long term goals as an artist?

I’m currently reflecting on the past five years of creating art. One near goal is to begin researching the possibility of true multiple medium creative works. This new idea will involve combining two-dimensional imagery, three dimensional sculpture, performance, sound, light, and other mediums into an interactive experience that depends on the human condition and subconscious to fulfill the composition. Maybe I should go back to school and get a P.H.D in psychology!