Absolutelyart.: 2010

Mark Erickson interview for a publication.

According to your website you stated your mother and grandmother were both painters. Was that the reason you started to paint?
Most definitely. I grew up among painters and paintings on the walls of all the houses I lived in over the years in Hollywood, Munich, New York City, Torino and Venice. My first fascination of painting was seeing my grandmother's (Blanche Hesslein) gorgeous paintings in her studio and all over our house.

Also my mother's (Bernice) paintings, watercolors and assorted drawings and copper-enamel paintings were incredible influences. Even my father painted for awhile when I grew up. To me painting were everywhere, in the galleries and museums we visited as I grew up. I thought it odd when I went to a friend's house and they did not have any paintings on the walls.

What is your earliest recollection of painting?
Well as I said, my first earlist recollections were the paintings I saw of my grandmother and mother's around the house and at my grandmother's house and her studio in Hollywood. I really think my earliest memory is of a very large painting of a magnolia that hung in the living room that my grandmother painted in New york City back in the 1930's or 1940s. I still enjoy seeing it when I go home.
I will attach a photo of 'Magnolia' by Blanche Hesslein.....painted in the 1930s or 1940s in New York City.

When you were 7 years old what did you want to be when you grew up?
I wanted to be many things. Sometimes it changed from week to week. I believe top on my mind at the time as a boy, I wanted to be Major League Baseball player. Also i had a major interest in found objects and junk and beach combing. So i recall wanting to be a a garbage collector, I just wanted to be the guy hanging off the back of the truck driving up and down the alleys of Hollywood. People threw away such great stuff.

When fate turned the other way for the Los Angeles Sanitation Department and the San Francisco Giants (baseball team) did not call, I followed in my family's tradition and began studying painting. I may have wanted to be a soldier and a cop at one time when I was a boy too. But think the soldier thoughts were more World War II in France than Vietnam or any of the Bush wars still hovering all over us.

Did your mother have your fingers in the paint (real paint) from an early age, encouraging you to play and experiment?
In many ways it was my grandmother, she was my nanny, I called her that, and I spent a lot of time with her. She was always painting, drawing, making jewelry. But my mother always let me do what I wanted and being creative was definitely part of the household. I grew up in paint.

Some piks of my mother and grandmother in New York City and some their paintings.

Has being involved in the art field been your only goal in life? Is it your means of survival?
I would have to say yes, in my late teens I started really considering an artist (painter's) life would be mine. It is my main means of making a living and has been for quite awhile.

Do you ever compromise when it comes to your brushes? Do you use cheap quality brushes?
I have in my day bought the most expensive and the cheapeast. I came to realize in the last 10 or so years, it is always good to have a few really good brushes that I take pretty good care of. But in general I am very hard on my brushes, so cheap brushed are regularly used. I have jars full of brushes. A brush is a tool and I abuse them to their limit, but can not throw them away. I save them in coffee cans.
Do you believe that anyone can be an artist or do you feel there is certain criteria that qualifies ones work as art?
I believe anyone can be an artist that has dispiline and creativity in their blood and has vision and loves their craft and keeps at it. If you live and breathe
your craft, you will arrive at a realization eventually. Your skills will be at a point that you can trust them to do what you desire.

What do you think of a white canvas? And the claim that it is art?
Well it is art, the history books prove it I guess you can say.
Robert Ryman was the one that ran with that idea 50 + years ago. Russian painter, Kazimir Malevich did his white painting back in the early part of the 20th Century, even Robert Rauchenberg did a series of white paintings. Rauschenberg is one of my favorite artists and I respected him a lot, but that series was not really one of my favorites. I will attach below some images of him and his white paintings.
Who knows, maybe then it was art. It was possibly revolutionary at the time. Now if someone painted a white painting, it just comes off as being easy and basically an idea that is not original. A fake painting. Doing it now has to have a pretty good reason, more than just believing you are creating some void to let the viewer get lost in. Black, blue, red, you name it, all a ruse of absurdity in this day and age. It has been done. like most things. One thing I see, so many artists do not know their history. It's all there, just pick up a book and read or google painters of the 2Oth century to start with. Then go back in time. Just because you never heard of it, or did not know something already existed does not mean it has not already been done and probably done a lot better. Ignorance is not bliss.

What inspires you?
Words, nature, music, old painted walls, old photographs, water, the horizon, a sunset, and often my own work.

Do you work in themes?
Mostly in series, an guess you could call them themes. But once i find something that i really enjoy, an image or a theme as you asked I take it as far as i can go until the light dims and I take a turn to something else.
Do you believe the marketing process that some artists follow? In other words, to follow the trends that sell and having an identifiable style, or fly by gut instinct and never worry about the sales.
I believe in both. I sell my work and I like that. It is important to my survival.I have known very successful commercial artists , none worth mentioning truthfully. What i learned from them, often i feel was unethical, yet they are very successful and have a large following.
I understood where they are coming from and their own supposed vision. Selling and having a name means a lot to them. All artists have egos.
But some artists need that financial ego boost. Fame and prestige and personal wealth and a comfortable lifestyle.
Others say they do not want or care for that. To be a successful artist you must try and get your work seen. Marketing and promotion and all the trappings of being represented by galleries and dealers is part of the game. The game has been alive for a long time. But painting an image to be trendy or fall into some time period of a colors popularity is in my mind the wrong reason to paint and a journey to absurdity. The core of what painting is lost then, for what you end up is pretty much just decoration, like a piece of furniture. But the world needs a lot of decoration, so that part of the art world will keep chugging a long.
Do you force yourself to paint or wait for the inspiration?
I am in between that. If I have a show coming up I eventually force myself.
Inspiration is nice to come along, if it comes in a timely manner, but often you have to search for it and in some cases just paint, treating painting like the craft it is and just do it. If you can get comfortable with your painting, you just go in the studio and paint. What else are you going to do? If you are a painter you paint. Done deal.
Who are your influences?
I have had many in my life.
Artists and writers and musicians and family members. Charles Bukowski, Picasso, Willem Dekooning, Matisse.

what are your favorite pieces -
One of my favorite paintings still is Picasso's 'Les Demoiselles d'Avignon' hanging in the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. I love seeing that painting.
Henry Matisse's 1917 painting 'Goldfish in Studio,' his 1903 painting, 'Carmelina' and his "Decorative Figure on an Ornamental Ground'
Dekooning's women series paintings...his black and white paintings....

Here, take a look-see. They all relate in so many ways
What inspired the Polaroids?
My painting and having an old SX-70 camera and getting ahold of some interesting film. I just tried to make a photo look like a painting, once I did that I felt I had succeeded and I slowly slowed down shooting Polaroids and went back to my painting.

How would you define yourself as an artist?
I love what I do, feel it is who I am. Seeking the next painting is my ultimate goal. Feeling fortunate I found something that is enjoyable to do.
Is this all there is for you? If you could do something else, what would you trade painting in for?
Well I would never do that, but maybe in way just branch out more. More writing and poetry and photography. Publishing art-books is fun.
Song-writing. Surfing. Driving across the desert, searching for gold.
Music or silence?
Music most of the time.
Silence when I lay down to relax and sleep.
What does Doc Sonian stand for?
In college I had a friend that called me Ericksonian, then as time went by he started calling me Sonian or The Sonian.
Doc was a nickname from back in Hollywood when i was growing up. A girl called me Doc because I once told her I never would want to be a doctor. It stuck.
I use Doc Sonain in a lot of art projects, and as a handle for a few websites and signatures for cartoon/graphic work.
It just takes me back to when all this started and in many ways I like honoring those college days back in North Beach (San Francisco)

Dear Friends,

We are all aware of the ongoing suffering of the people of Haiti. The earthquake brought them to their knees; the aftermath has brought them face-down in mud and squalor. There are countless children without homes or parents. If we were to find ourselves in this predicament, or if our children were in this situation, we would pray that someone would help us. Haiti needs our help now. The artist, Lisa De Prudhoe, has very generously donated one of her paintings, valued at £4,000, and has asked me to organise a raffle for the painting. Our aim is to raise £20,000 which will go some way towards helping these people rebuild their lives.

Go to the website www.apaintingforhaiti.com where you can see the painting and make your donation. You will get one raffle ticket for every £5 you donate. Please give as much as you can - £100 will buy you twenty raffle tickets. You will be helping a very worthwhile cause and increasing your chances of winning this wonderful painting. Whatever you can give will be much appreciated. Online payments will go directly to UNICEF, one of the leading charities dealing with this disaster. Alternatively, you can send a cheque to me at the address at the foot of this email. Please make your cheque payable to UNICEF. Whichever method you use, please be sure to give your name, address and email address so that we can let you know which ticket numbers have been allocated to you. The raffle will be drawn on 1st May and the painting will be delivered, free of charge, to the winner.

Could I ask you, please, to forward this email to everyone you know. With your help we can reach our target.

Thank you so much for your support.

Wendy

Wendy J Levy Contemporary Art Ltd
17 Warburton Street
Didsbury
Manchester M20 6WA
England
+44 (0)161 446 4880
www.wendyjlevy-art.com

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