Meet Alex Erickson

Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Alex Erickson. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Alex, we are so deeply grateful to you for opening up about your journey with mental health in the hops that it can help someone who might be going through something similar. Can you talk to us about your mental health journey and how you overcame or persisted despite any issues? For readers, please note this is not medical advice, we are not doctors, you should always consult professionals for advice and that this is merely one person sharing their story and experience.

I’ve been in a long lasting -but upward moving- struggle with my mental health for what feels like forever. Diagnoses piled on top of each other throughout my preteen and teenage years, leading to stays at treatment center after treatment center- some better than others. At times, I was close to resigning myself to a life lived in these centers. I found a certain safety in being sick, and while I didn’t know how to do much else very well, I knew how to work a treatment program, feel ok for a few months, and then backslide. One pivotal moment for me, however, was my admittance into wilderness therapy. I have mixed views towards this experience today, but it did give me the time and severity of situation to reevaluate much of my life.
The first few days I was in wilderness, I was incredibly unhappy. Most of my time was spent sitting silently under a piece of tarp, not doing anything at all (amongst a few attempts to run away). I refused to eat much, and honestly hoped I’d be sent somewhere else because of my refusal. But eventually, I came to realize that the only way out was through. This realization sounds so simple, and it was something I’d certainly tried to apply to my life before. But this time I truly committed to it. I knew that in order to live the life I so badly wanted, I had to wholeheartedly let go of the safety I found in sickness. And that didn’t mean going full throttle for a few months, getting tired, and relaxing my attitude once in the real world. It meant continuing to work through tough situations- gently. To consciously do the opposite of what my brain tells me, and to give myself grace when I come short or get exhausted. I needed to let go of a temporary and false safety, comfort, and sometimes pleasure, in the pursuit of long-term happiness.
I’m not “there,” yet, wherever there is. But I think part of recovery too, for me, has been realizing that there is no magical “there” where everything is better. Life is horrible sometimes, but as long as you hang in through the horribleness, and consistently do actions that challenge it, there will be good, and there will be peace. You must let yourself recognize it, though.
Now, I do art and yoga to make myself recognize the good. Sometimes I get out of practice, and fall back into a lull of sad stagnancy, but I take some time if needed, and then try to get back into it. It’s still a struggle, but I find so much happiness in the fact that I am such a different person than that girl who sat silently on that dirt floor. And years from now, I cannot wait to look back and think the same.

Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?

I am an artist and college student based in Pennsylvania. While I started out painting and drawing, over the past few years I’ve been enjoying branching out into printmaking, mixed media, clothing design, and even a bit of performance art. My primary goal in creating art is to feel something while creating, and to incite emotion in my viewers too. I love hearing how people personally connect to my pieces. I’ve also really been enjoying creating puzzle-like art, and have recently been running with compositions full of stars that fit into each other. Moving forward, I hope to create more clothing items, as well as large scale paintings and drawings. I’ve loved branching out to different mediums, but I plan to delve into oil painting in the next few years, with less inhibition. Lots more art to come!

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

One skill that comes to mind -which has been extremely helpful in my art-making journey- is informing myself on art & artists. Learning about art history, as well as contemporary art, has been invaluable and influential to my being an artist. Learning about art does not need to be a laborious or intense process. Some of my most influential experiences have been through going to museums on a whim, or picking up a book- reading about artists from Bosch to Patti Smith. I aim for my art to be uniquely my own, yet by viewing the work of other artists, I can add metaphorical tools to my tool belt and spark new ideas. Seeing the work of artists like David Wojnarowicz and Wangechi Mutu- as well as countless others, has inspired me to push boundaries that I otherwise would not have, and venture into new mediums and materials.

While this seems simple, a second skill that is an integral part of my art-making is repeated practice. Every piece I create isn’t -and shouldn’t- be finished fine art. Creating finished products is important as an artist, but so is sketching, practice, and failure. I love creating compositions that include faces, and often create faces from my mind. But I’ve found that when I halt my practice of picking reference photos from the web and sketching, I’m less able to grab a pencil or paintbrush and create stylized faces of my own. Artists do not need to stick to rules or references. After all, much of art is breaking boundaries. But for me and my personal style, I’ve found that revisiting references, color theory, and dipping my toe back into realism can give me more of a foundation to create from. Returning to the basics gives me a basis to push boundaries.

A quality which I am constantly working on, and which has been equally helpful towards my art-making, is letting go. The further I progress in my art-making journey, the more I feel a paralysis of perfection. I worry that my art is not good enough and stress about ruining works in progress. Yet, this stress is paradoxical. The more I worry about failure, the more I tend to make that prophecy come true. But when I allow my inspiration to carry me, and when I let my logic, plans, and worries about half-baked underpaintings fade, I’m able to create art I truly feel happy about. Art often has “ugly” stages- that’s why it’s a work in progress. But that “ugliness” can be the touch that makes the final product sing, if you work with it rather than fight against it.

Okay, so before we go we always love to ask if you are looking for folks to partner or collaborate with?

I’ve recently been getting into clothing design, and would love to partner with artists in the fashion field to collaborate. So far I’ve painted on various articles of clothing, and am hoping to expand towards printing and potentially airbrushing. However, I have no experience when it comes to sewing or fashion design. Getting the opportunity to work with an artist who produces clothing -to paint on or otherwise add design to products- would be amazing. Additionally, I’m always up to collaborate with musical artists. I’ve worked with musicians in the past on album designs and have had a lot of fun. Trying to capture a sound within a painting or drawing is a really exciting challenge.
If any artists reading this would like to collaborate, I can be contacted through email or instagram! Whether this sounds like you, or if you’d like to collaborate otherwise, I’m definitely open!

Contact Info:

• Instagram: mostofmyart
• Other: Gmail: [email protected]

Image Credits

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