We recently connected with Eric Beal and have shared our conversation below.

Eric, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

In my art practice, I derive my inspiration from seeing how the world is and accentuating its urgencies. Attempting to reflect the times and striving to create a didactic image with the contradictions of injustices heightened. The goal of my work is to enlighten the viewer by transferring the emotions of a piece and showing how our societal issues affect all of us but on the individual level.

So, in a sense, every piece of work I make is coming from a recent issue that I want to address. Finding the subject matter and language needed to convey the emotions of the situation can take time, though, so it’s a balance between immediacy and reflection. With each additional painting or mural, I get more comfortable revisiting subjects and expounding upon different messages to highlight.

Unfortunately, our world is facing problems at an increasingly rapid pace. Climate change, war, transphobia, economic injustice – these are globe spanning problems that need a shared language to contextualize their interconnectedness. Being able to create work that shows people that there are others out there that feel the pain of these problems and even informs the understanding for many more, makes each painting meaningful in hindsight. So whether it is painting a mural of a butterfly landing on razor wire to show solidarity with the trans movement in the face of violent opposition or being told “to me, this is the most important painting in the world” by a viewer of love me, love me not, seeing people emotionally react to my work makes each piece that much more meaningful to create and drives me to make the next painting. Because there are always more people out there that haven’t seen my work.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

Borrowing from my print-making days in high school and combining that with my love for street art, I paint limited edition canvas works and murals with spray paint and stencils. Since stencil street art works the same way as prints, by throwing up the same piece multiple times in different spots, I wanted to create works of the same subject that would then hang in different locations when bought. This way, I can spread the message more broadly and keep the works at an accessible price. Each piece has its own custom drawn, cut, and destroyed stencil making every work completely unique. So far, I’ve created completely new paintings for my mural work, but plan on expanding some of my canvas pieces onto walls and my murals into prints.

I also co-founded The Artscene with my friend in Paris Lisa Marc. The Artscene is a journal of the contemporary art world, discovering new artists and cultures by sharing their stories. The Artscene supports working artists in their pursuit to create by sharing their work, visions, and stories with audiences in different languages, cultures, and countries, to maximize accessibility with a focus on Los Angeles, Paris, and Tokyo. The Artscene empowers people to express creativity in any artform, whether a beginner or professional, by sharing their work and stories in whatever medium helps their art shine the brightest.

My proudest moment as an artist was at Art Week Miami, where I was showing a few paintings in a group show. A couple was looking at my painting titled love me, love me not that depicts a worm’s eye-view of a rose juxtaposed next to a methane flaring rig typical of an oil extraction site. The couple turned to me and said they were visiting from Peru. Then they said “to me, this is the most important painting in the world.” I’ll always cherish that moment because I was able to so deeply share my message with someone from a different place and culture.

I’m not interested in creating work about myself. I want to create work that is about all of us.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

Ultimately, I want to share and create a political consciousness of the connected structures of injustice through everything I do. Paintings, murals, videos, sculptures, podcasts are all avenues that I approach with this particular goal in mind. With hope at the heart of my work, I can only keep creating to try and affect change in the world.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

I’m very detail-oriented with any creation, so I used to stress over the smallest imperfection in a stencil or painting. If the spray paint seeped under a stencil or the placement of a finger’s shadow was a bit too long, I would feel defeated.

One day, I was helping my friend and fellow artist Stephanie Sherwood install her art show, including a site-specific painting. Stephanie looked at the wall and her arranged furniture and said “I think this is the biggest thing I’ve ever painted. Well, time to start.” And she immediately got to work.

I now try to bring that spirit to all of my paintings, of just taking a moment to internalize the accomplishment of creating, then getting right to work. It’s helped me get out of my way and allowed me to paint some really great work as of late.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.ericbealart.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ericbealart/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ericdbealii/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@theartscene9901
• Other: https://www.theartscene.com/

Image Credits
Hagop Najarian (Pool Photo)