UCM Faculty: Words with Eric Carlson

In preparation of Issue 3, we had the pleasure of sitting down with UCM's very own Eric Carlson to chat about teaching, his versatile personal work, and how beautifully the two overlap.

(Above photo: Mama's Boy)

Can you tell us about your artistic and educational background?

My artistic background, I had art in high school that we actually had to test into called the CAPA, or the gifted program. I remember skipping other classes to go to art. Art and athletics are what actually kept me in school. Art has always been my escape. From construction work to car restoration and even personal training, it all influences my artwork.

I have my BFA in Ceramics and Metals & Jewelry from Illinois State University and my MFA in Ceramics with a minor in Fibers from the University of Missouri-Columbia.

When did you first become interested in pursuing art as a career?

I became interested in pursuing my art career while I was in undergrad at Western Illinois University studying Athletic Training and Fitness. I started taking art classes as electives to have a way to relax and express myself. While taking a 3-D design class I had a professor that made quite an impact on me. He actually cared about his students. I didn’t feel like a number in the classroom anymore. One of the projects for his class was a portrait bust made out of clay. I became enamored by this newfound media. Gill saw this and really started to push and encourage me to come into the studio at anytime and just start making stuff. That is how I really got started down this road.

RED

Teaching your courses, you emphasize the ability to work in a wide variety of media. How important is it, as a working artist, to be versatile when it comes to materials?

I think it is extremely important as an artist to be as versatile as possible in the art world. Never limit your toolbox. When you do as an artist you can force ideas and work into the wrong medias. If you look throughout art history you find that many artists are multifaceted. Evolving as an artist takes growth. Once you stop you limit yourself stunting one’s growth and work. This is what I try to instill in my student as well.

You yourself are well versed in quite a variety of media. Do you have a favorite?

Clay is my favorite media to work with. You can do so much with it as a material. It just fascinates me as a substance to work with and always will.

How Fast Can you Run...

Your courses also stress the importance of context, researching and understanding the artists and theories behind the work. Are there any specific artists or theories that you cite as influencing your own work?

Specific artists that influence my work and me? I have so many artists that I look at that affect my work. The ones that affect me the most are all people I have had the privilege of working with as my mentors, i.e.…. Ceramics artists: Paul Sacharidz (sculpture), Bede Clark (potter), David East (sculpture), Tom Malone (potter), Gill Stengal (potter), Painters: Nyame Brown, Sculptor: Gary Justice, Metal smiths: Dennis French and Donovan Widmer. All helped shape me into who I am as an artist and who I am striving to be.

One artist that I admire the most is the sculptor David Hammons. His career and work has really struck a cord with me. It's very different that my own work but has always stuck with me at a gut and mind level. He was kind of my “ah-hah” moment within the contemporary art world I guess you could say.

As an active artist, what kind of advantages does teaching art courses bring? Are you able to bring experiences from the classroom into your own work?

As an artist, teaching helps keep me grounded. It helps give me a spark to feed off of. Creativity generates energy. But what I enjoy the most is watching when one of my students gets that “ah-hah” moment. I feed off of that. That’s why I teach.

My Rack Is Bigger Than Yours

Your plush series is a favorite among the students. Can you tell us a little about the history behind these pieces?

The plush work started off as ceramic guns but it didn’t get the effect that I wanted from the viewers. They were scared but it didn’t stick with them. So while in graduate school I came across this book Children At War. On the cover was a small boy carrying an AK-47. It hit me like a ton of bricks. Thinking of a lot of my childhood friends that had chosen a fast life as I call it. We were all raised in an era of the hyper-masculine male action hero and thought that’s what we should be like. In doing so I watched as these guys went to prison, became paralyzed or worse. So thinking, I was in a fibers class at that time, and I pondered, “What if I started sewing toy guns?” What and how would that affect the audience I was trying to reach? My mother taught me to sew when I was very young but my uncles and father soon stopped that because “Boys don’t sew!” I found that I could make fun of myself while getting people to react to where violence and aggression starts. I found that humor was a much better tool to use while taking on such a political statement such as gun violence or violence in general, rather than being an aggressor and attacking the viewer and being so literal with what I was trying to say. From this, the first of many pink and white AK-47’s, hand grenades, and other weapons were born.

You’ve mentioned beginning work on a new series. What can you tell us about your plans for future work?

Well my new series of ceramics work is based off of the anatomy and physiology of the human body. I find myself always going back to the body; I have always been enamored by it to a cellular level. Our mechanics and ability to function amaze me. It’s like I want to dissect it, but make the parts on my own to help me understand their function better. Maybe fixing parts that are broken or making them more efficient. Placing these parts on ornate pedestals that are ornate and decorative but deteriorating somewhat themselves. Relics of the past in a way. This series is still very new to me but has me very excited to work on.