Eric Rottcher shared their story and experiences with us recently and you can find our conversation below.
Good morning Eric, we’re so happy to have you here with us and we’d love to explore your story and how you think about life and legacy and so much more. So let’s start with a question we often ask: What’s more important to you—intelligence, energy, or integrity?
Energy matters most to me. In our postmodern era, intelligence isn’t a prerequisite for creating—an idea doesn’t need to be good on paper to be powerful in reality. What makes the difference is having the energy to make something, to test it, to see what it becomes, and keep repeating. Integrity, while valuable to some, feels subjective and arbitrary to me. Integrity seems to have rigidity— limited by notions of what’s “right” or “pure” would shut down my curiosity. I prefer to explore, to push against my own perceptions. For that, I need energy above all else—the momentum to keep creating, even when the outcome is uncertain.
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
My name is Eric Rottcher, a mixed media collage artist based in Silver Spring, Maryland. I work with paint, paper, and found scraps of paper—layering, tearing, and scraping away until the surface feels distressed. My work wrestles with heavy topics like addiction, memory, grief, and the weight of secrets. Right now I’m deep into my After Party series which is about the uncomfortable and painful things we all endure in our lifetimes—Whether it’s a relationship that imploded, a dream that collapsed, or a version of yourself you no longer recognize. The series is scheduled to debut as a solo exhibition sometime in November at the Delaplaine Arts Center in Frederick, MD
Amazing, so let’s take a moment to go back in time. Who saw you clearly before you could see yourself?
I think that might have to be my Mom. I’m her only child and for all intents and purposes, I was an only child growing up. Translation: In her eyes, I could do no wrong. My mom was 100% behind the evolution of my personality—she let me be myself without any kind of judgement. My dad was supportive in many ways, but I don’t think he saw me for anymore than what I did at the time. but in different ways. He was the disciplinarian when I was growing up, the one setting limits, but over the years he’s softened. My mom always gave me space to just be.
If you could say one kind thing to your younger self, what would it be?
It’s OK to be weird. It’s OK to be different. It’s OK if people don’t understand you. You don’t need to fit into their idea of who you should be—you’re already good enough as you are. You have a seat at the table, even if it doesn’t feel like it yet. The very things that set you apart are the things that will carry you forward.
Sure, so let’s go deeper into your values and how you think. Whose ideas do you rely on most that aren’t your own?
This Is a tough question, but I think most of my ideas can be credited to other people—maybe I rely most on my Dad, Marcel Duchamp, and Friedrich Nietzsche. My dad’s ideas shaped me early on—his values, his discipline, his way of looking at the world, even when I resisted it. Duchamp showed me that art could be weird, irreverent and still deeply meaningful, that breaking rules could create its own kind of truth. And Nietzsche—he gave me a way of wrestling with existence, with meaning and contradiction I still carry into how I think and live day to day.
Before we go, we’d love to hear your thoughts on some longer-run, legacy type questions. What pain do you resist facing directly?
Some of the pain I run from goes back to when my mom had her brain aneurysm—it altered her, and it altered the entire dynamic of my family. My dad and I drifted for a long time, never really finding our way back to the same rhythm. Maybe he did, but I know I didn’t. My mom survived, but she was never quite the same—still herself, yet irrevocably changed. Another part of the pain is knowing that I stopped maturing just as I was about to graduate college. My depression lingered for years. I still don’t fully understand the depths of it, but I do know it stole nearly twelve years of my life. Admitting that is the easy part. Confronting it is something else entirely
Contact Info:
- Website: https://rottcher.com/
- Instagram: @ericrottcher
- Facebook: Eric Rottcher
- Other: Pinterest: Ericrottcher Art
Fineart America: https://fineartamerica.com/profiles/eric-rottcher
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