my job
By Laura French • jobslink@startribune.com
"Once I got past the 'I want to be a policeman, fireman' — the little kid things — art came next," Erik Pearson recalled. "I liked art. I was always drawing. I had no tangible examples of what being an artist meant."
He enrolled at the University of Wisconsin-Superior. "Initially it was just a close school, but the art program was really good. I actually learned a lot that I still refer to when I'm working," he said.
Pearson worked a variety of what he calls "disposable jobs" — at a drugstore, at a screen-printing shop, in a bindery. "The last job that I had was overnight maintenance. Because of the weird schedule, I wasn't doing much painting — maybe one or two a year, which is crazy to think back on."
The career breakthrough was receiving a residency from the Lanesboro Arts Center. "I was their first resident artist, which was exciting," Pearson said. "Once I had the residency and a full month with nothing to do but art — there was no TV, no Internet, no connection — I would wake up, eat and go to the studio that they had provided. I ended up painting five large oil paintings in a month. Not only that, I was sketching even when I wasn't painting, coming up with so many ideas. I turned on the idea faucet and broke the handle. Ever since then it's just constant ideas."
How did you start doing public murals?
In college, my paintings slowly got bigger and bigger — as big as I could fit in my vehicle. To make the next step you either get a larger vehicle or get a mural project. I was approached by the Lanesboro Arts Center and the local theater. They had this large construction wall. The design process was seven designs that worked independently as well as one giant whole painting. I look at the design now and it is so busy — there are so many characters and so much happening. It was a good thing I had no idea what I was doing. The second mural happened when I was getting studio space in Superior. The owner of the building said, "We are thinking of doing a mural." I've now done three murals. We have this great system — he knows what I'm going to do, we trust each other. I kind of fell into it. The third, for the Bloomington Center for the Arts, I had to do a full-on application. I decided to apply because I knew I wouldn't get it if I didn't, and the worst thing they could do it say no.
What is the career ladder for an artist?
There are no promotions. I don't even know how much time I spend in the studio. I think for me, to see how I've advanced, it's more a personal thing. This year is by far the busiest I've been, doing three murals. I'm going to do my second solo exhibition and maybe a third. My studio will be open for the St. Paul Art Crawl Oct. 10-12. The amount of work that I'm producing, and that it's not all coming back after a show, is a really good thing. I've become more involved in the neighborhood — there's a local art group called the Creative Enterprise Zone. Trying to find our connection with each other, letting other people know there are people producing fantastic things. □
