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

Eric, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Can you talk to us about how you learned to do what you do?

I guess I never learned to do what I do, as much as capitalize on the opportunity when someone recognized what I was already doing. The artistic son of an elementary school art teacher, there were lots of fun experiences with paper, sand, cardboard, driftwood, plaster, clay.
As an aspiring hermit, idealizing a life beyond the reach of capitalism and what seemed to be a doomed society, I enjoyed salvaged and repurposed materials, whether for art or functional craft.
A few years in the employ of a Southern Vermont blacksmith shop taught me some skills to take that salvaging to a new level, with steel as tool as well as medium.
But it was the free and easygoing wire mesh that seduced me and then got me noticed. Almost as soon as I had my hands on it I was making art.
So, almost forty years later, I’m still doing much the same as I was then, in my mid-twenties.
Just a little tweaking here and there.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I sculpt in steel wire mesh, creating figurative pieces for the wall or tabletop, as well as abstracts that are often geometric and/or biomorphic in character. I enjoy the serendipity of things happening in the right time and the right way, not forced or contrived.
I discovered the shadow effect of the mesh accidentally while holding a new sculpture up to the blue sky for a photograph. The metal shop was too messy, sooty and dark for photography.
The sun obliged and cast a perfect shadow replica of my sculpture on the hood of my car.
There were many years of art fairs, then decades of gallery representation, and then the internet and social media began to allow me to reach everywhere.
So it’s a mix of gallery sales now, and commissioned work through arts agencies. I enjoy translating a client’s vision into something I can create authentically. It always has to feel like a good fit.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

I had some talent, vision, and work ethic strengths going for me as a young man. But in small town Southern Vermont in the ‘Eighties, that was getting me house painting jobs because I lacked the drive and commitment to launch something of my own. I knew I needed to be an artist, but beyond that it was a mystery. When I suddenly found myself selling wire mesh figures it was a shock: people were finding value in this medium that I just made up out of nowhere! So I quit the best job I’d ever had, at the blacksmithing shop, only to realize I had no game plan for paying the bills. I had a young son and a mortgage and tried to make it work with handyman gigs. And sneak in a little sculpture here and there. This was perpetuating the old model, of scarcity and a passive approach.
When I came to my senses I knew that the only way forward was to leap off the cliff with no safety net and commit full-time to my art. That was hard. That was brutal. I don’t recommend it at all!
Unless it’s the only way, as it was for me. And it paid off big time. I’m lucky. And grateful. I’ve never looked back after thirty years of no safety net. I call it Living!

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

I feel that humility has been a disservice at times. The way I was raised, you didn’t go around bragging about what you could do. “Fake it til you make it” was deceitful, evil. What I didn’t understand is that we need those voices of confidence inside ourselves, whether or not they get spoken aloud.
It was rather recently that I had to confess out loud that fake-it-til-you-make-it actually makes a lot of sense.
Commit yourself to something scary, that you then have to summon all your strength and vision to manifest. And then you’ll do it!

Contact Info:

• Website: Www.boyermesh.com
• Instagram: @boyermesh
• Facebook: Boyermesh
• Linkedin: Boyermesh-I think
• Youtube: #eric boyer. Gallery videos, OPB Art Beat interview

Image Credits
Airyka Rockefeller