by Alia Bisat for the Eleventh Hour, vol. 2, issue 10, 7/21-8/03
Twenty-nine year old Eric Wakefield, Golden
Bough Books employee and full -time painter, fits the image of that passionate young
artist who limitlessly allows his art to have a mind of its own. Picture a mid-height,
skinny and dark haired man in a small corner of a studio apartment inebriated, listening
to Evanescence, painting people on paper with gouache paint, and you've got Eric. Getting
a few hours of sleep a night and sometimes forgetting to eat, Eric confesses, "When
I'm painting, what happens happens. I can't do anything about it." He says when he
drinks and listens to music it's almost like something outside himself is doing the
paintings, and he wakes up in the morning to a surprise. Eric usually listens to ambient
music but has lately broken away to listen
to Benevolent Femme, Linkin Park,
and usually "Goth by six in the morning."
Though Eric does each painting within a day or
two and sometimes within and afternoon, he only has room to paint one at a time in his
tiny studio and explains, "The ideas come into my head faster than I can paint
them." Limited space is motivating him to apply for the
Arts Exchange which
he explained is a program allowing artists to rent studios in the top two floors of the
Washington Block building in Macon. The waiting list is long, and there is a selection
process to who is admitted into the program. Eric giggles, "There are some people in
there who aren't very good."
The past few months for Eric have been
experimental, and he has currently entered a phase where he likes to convey the ideas of
time and movement in his paintings instead of just copying still photographs. He does this by
not just showing a single moment in time but painting a few images overlapping each other
or hands and other parts of the body moving. One of Eric's favorite paintings shows Eric
in the process of painting a piece. What at first looks like three different people in
this $2500 piece is actually three different images of the same person: Eric. He also
tried to paint a picture upside down. I asked him if he meant the picture he was copying
was upside down or if he was upside down. He explained the photograph he was copying was
hanging upside down but exclaimed, "That's a good idea! I should try that." His
response to my warnings of painting drunk and upside down was simple, "I paint
dangerously."
Eric has been painting since he was little boy
and remembers, "I was
looking at a newspaper when I
was 6 or 7. It was black and white, and I thought it needed colored so I painted over
it." He served in the army then came to Macon to go to Mercer University and graduated with
a degree in art, but he admits he learned more from experience and exposure to art history
than the actual studio art classes. Throughout college, Eric was going on road trips to
Chicago, St. Louis, and all over the Southeast trading a small painting for a sandwich or
painting a sign for a car garage to have his brakes fixed. He admits living that way
"was hard, but fun."
Eric also used to sell in college and soon learned that "too much painting what you think will
sell and commissions takes the joy out of it. I have to paint for myself. I'd lose my mind
or drink myself into a coma if I didn't." Though he recently had a show in the Red
Room and some of his paintings are for sale, he really doesn't try hard to sell his art.
The prices on his pieces run into four digit numbers, especially those he doesn't want to
part with. For example, "Her New Hat," Eric's current favorite, is running for
$5000. Eric misses his paintings so much, he even has a notice posted
on his web site to anyone who owns one of his pieces to e-mail him so he can make a copy.
The internet site he posted a few weeks ago has
his newer paintings and his old as well as an album cover he did for Skeebo Knight. Most
posted paintings have humorous commentary explaining what he was doing and how much he was
drinking at each stage of his paintings evolution. At the end of the interview, I asked
Eric if he had anything to add, and he laughed and said, "We can go to Liz Reed's,
drink a beer and discuss this more properly."
To visit his web site go to
www.goldenbough.com/ericsart.htm or you can stop by Golden Bough Books on Cotton Avenue to
meet Eric and see some of his paintings in person.
page last modified 10/10/05