We were lucky to catch up with Roxy Erickson recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Roxy thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

The most meaningful project I’ve worked on in recent years was a mural for the newly built Children’s Safety Center, In Springdale, Arkansas. The goal of the center is to “empower children to overcome abuse and begin to trust, hope and heal” as well as “facilitate more effective prevention, detection, investigation, and treatment of child abuse”.
The mural I created was for an interior room where staff and advocates receive training. The mural depicts hands holding seeds, passing the seeds and the seeds sprouting into a daffodil. There are daffodils, butterflies and pinwheels also depicted throughout the mural. The seeds represent knowledge and spreading that knowledge to others so that it can then bloom into understanding. Daffodils and butterflies are symbols of hope and rebirth and the pinwheels are for child abuse awareness. Everything was painted in an abstract style with muted, calming colors.
The project resonated with me because of personal experiences, my own and those of people very close to me, in my life. My personal work also has a focus on representing victims of abuse, trauma and the feelings they go through. I was extremely grateful to be asked to create and paint this mural as it gives me the chance to spread the word about this much needed facility and hopefully share a positive message of healing and hope to anyone engaging in the space.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

My name is Roxy Erickson. I am a visual artist/muralist currently based in Northwest Arkansas. From a very young age I knew I wanted to be an artist when I grew up. I have always had a love of anything creative and throughout grade school/highschool art classes where my main focus and thing I excelled in the most. When I was 15 my family moved overseas, to New Delhi, India. I was lucky to be able to complete my last couple years of highschool attending the American embassy school, where I had amazing teachers and facilities, and took every creative class I could. From painting, sculpture, darkroom photography, theater, ceramics. Nothing was off limits but my main passion has always been painting. After highschool I received my Bachelors of Fine Arts, in painting, from Savannah College of Art and Design. I then went on to get a Masters of Fine Arts, from the San Francisco Art Institute. In 2016 I made the move back to my hometown of Bentonville, AR after 10 years away and having vowed I would never move back to Arkansas. Haha. I maintained a studio practice while working full time and then in 2020 I decided to take the leap, quit my day job and be a full time artist. It was around 2019/2020 that I first got introduced to mural painting. Although I have a long history of painting on canvas, I had never considered making the jump to walls and public spaces.
I fell into mural painting completely by coincidence. I met someone at a solo gallery show I was putting on, that offered me my first mural job. That led to another bigger project which led to me getting a mural grant to complete an even bigger project. I was then very fortunate to get an assisting gig to muralist Louise Jones (aka Ouizi) which was invaluable to learning tips and tricks of the craft. That job led me to working on a project with Just Kids, in Las Vegas, in 2021 and the rest is history.
I paint a lot of different styles of murals but since my background is in oil painting, I am able to paint more realistic styles on a large scale, which I think sets me apart from other muralists. My personal work, on canvas, is usually always portraiture, my true love.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

The most rewarding aspect of being an artist, for me, is the freedom and the flexibility I have within my work. I am fully in control of the jobs I choose to take or reject and my daily schedule. I think, like most creatives, I’m highly independent and don’t like being told what to do. So while there is always the unknown of being a freelance artist the pros outway the cons.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative?

To piggyback off my last answer, I think the unpredictability of being a freelance painter is probably something non-creatives will struggle with. So much of my job relies on word of mouth, networking and honestly who you know, that can then get you in contact with someone else, that then gives you a job. Even though it may just look fun and easy, you have to be intensely dedicated if you’re going to make it as a full time artist. It can be very stressful not knowing when the next big paycheck will come around and you have to be constantly putting your work out there and unapologetic about promoting yourself.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.roxyshmoxy.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/roxyshmoxyy/