Today we’d like to introduce you to Eric Breish.
Eric, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I suppose that is a pretty long and winding story. I’ll start with high school graduation in 1997 from Kingwood High School in Houston, TX. In January of 1997 I enlisted in the United States Marine Corps with my parents’ permission at age 17. For the next four years, the Marine Corps gave me a foundation that was much needed. I was honorably discharged as a decorated Sergeant in 2001 shortly before the 9/11 attacks. After the military, I attended Full Sail University for audio engineering and entertainment business where I earned a AS and a BS degree. I graduated salutatorian in 2005. It was at Full Sail where I was introduced to a more creative crowd and lifestyle that seemed to suit me better than my previous militant background.
My creative journey had begun but I didn’t realize where it would ultimately lead. After school I moved back to San Diego where I was previously stationed as a Marine and began working for a company that designed and made clothing for surf/skate companies like Hurley, Billabong, Volcom and Rockstar Energy to name a few. Besides handling the logistics of how the clothing was made and how it arrived at retailers like Pac Sun, I was able to have a hand in the visual design of the clothing that sparked my interest in visual arts. With my background in music, entertainment and now clothing design, my creative outlets started to culminate with no real path to how I would make a living at it. I decided to leave my job in San Diego in 2005 and move back to my home state of TX but this time to San Antonio. I began rooming with one of my buddies from the Marine Corps who was from there and was introduced to a new life that wasn’t exactly the creative vibe I had left behind in CA and FL. I got a job in IT for a large bank and began my corporate career in 2006.
The desire to create was still strong and my roommate offered some old paints and brushes that he had from college after a dream that I had about painting. The dream came one night and when I woke up, I had this strong urge to paint although I had never painted before. I didn’t even know the difference between oil and acrylics. The next day I bought a canvas at Hobby Lobby and proceeded to fumble my way through the painting until it resembled the flower I set out to paint. It actually looked pretty good and from that point, I was hooked. I received encouragement from those who saw the painting and even took a couple of painting classes early on to help guide me and provide education on the fundamentals. Soon I realized that painting for me was about expression and that the “rules” around art in the academic world didn’t suit me. Slowly I moved toward a more abstract palette that truly let me paint the way I wanted to. In 2007, I took an oil and gas job in Houston where I was introduced to a sophisticated art scene. It was there that I saw big name artists that were selling out shows for large amounts of money and living a true artist existence. I was enamored with it all.
On the weekends I would donate my time to a particular gallery that I always hung out at and the owner showed me the ropes and even game me my first opportunity in a group show. Little did I know, I would soon meet a world-renowned artist who would become my mentor and one of the most important people I’d ever met. Long story short, I studied his metal work for hours at the gallery and had never seen anything like it. It was like seeing color for the first time. Immediately I knew this was the medium I wanted to devote my time to and what I’d been looking for since the beginning. After a late night in the studio, I decided to write him an email which turned out to be way longer than I intended. After pushing send, I realized that he probably wasn’t going to respond and that he might think I was crazy for the heavily praised email.
About a month later, I received an email from his wife stating that while he receives a lot of mail, my letter reached him during a very dark period that kept him out of the studio. She went on to say my words lifted him out of bed and back into the studio. She also mentioned that he was attending his show at the gallery in Houston next month and would I like to have dinner. Needless to say, I took the offer. The dinner came and we hit it off like old friends even with our age difference, he was twice my age, but it didn’t seem to matter. That friendship would shape everything going forward. He not only taught me about art, something he never taught anyone in his 50-year career, but he taught me how to live like an artist.
To this day, that letter was the single most important action I took in my artistic career. It was the beginning of it all and has been magic ever since. That was 2008 and when I began to seriously work toward a career as an artist. I refined my skills every night and, on the weekends, as I balance my stressful numbers driven career in oil and gas. I was completely dedicated and driven to become a great artist. I moved back with my job to San Antonio in 2010 where I bought a house large enough to accommodate a studio. I had a plan to build everything I needed to become a full-time artist and leave my corporate career behind. I got representation at a San Antonio gallery in 2013 and started to have regular shows, both group and solo, and found a market for my work which led to finally making money on a regular basis. That same year I met a girl who would go on to be my wife. She listened to my plan to become a full-time artist and leave my six-figure job. Most people might have hesitation around that idea, but she encouraged me to chase that dream.
In 2014 during a visit to my mentors, we devised a plan to leave my job by January 2016. It was one of the more difficult decisions I had ever made, but when the time came, I bit the bullet and quit. It was scary in the beginning. I had one gallery and quickly realized that in order to pay my bills, I would have to expand my reach from a gallery perspective and start utilizing all that I had learned in the business world. To this day, I’m really thankful for my education and business experience because I believe it’s equally as important as being a talented artist. I managed to gain several more galleries in Vail, Aspen, Santa Fe, Maui and Houston which has allowed me to breath a bit easier and has led me to now 4 1/2 years of being a full-time artist. It’s quite a road now that I look back on it.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
If you’ve had a smooth road as a creative, consider yourself lucky and get ready for some bumps in the future. There have been countless lessons learned since I started in the arts. Just from an artist perspective, becoming proficient in the mediums that you use is a big challenge not to mention using those skills/mediums in a way that is interesting to people, galleries, curators and potential collectors. After you spend an enormous amount of time refining those skills, and even if you get to a point to show your work, and artist has to find a home for the work. Knowing how to approach galleries for a show or even representation is one of the biggest roadblocks that an artist finds in their career. If they are lucky enough to find representation or get access to showing in a gallery, then you have to learn how to speak about your art and connect with collectors. If you are lucky enough to sell work, another challenge is treating it like a business.
From managing your books, cash flow and ultimately taxes as an entrepreneur which definitely gave me some issues as I became more successful. The art world is also very political and managing relationships can be difficult to say the least. In between all of that, an artist faces challenges shipping artwork, dealing with damages, dealing with collectors that didn’t like the particular shade of red you chose for a commission, walking into a space three days before your show opens that isn’t ready for the show and the list goes on for a mile. If you are a person who doesn’t thrive in chaos, doesn’t have a thick skin or likes an easy road, then the life of an artist might not be for you. Not to mention what that life entails like no schedule or structure, no one pressing you to get work done or to be creative, the hours upon hours of isolation and few places to turn for help or struggles with creative blocks. You really need to be self-sufficient.
Please tell us about your work.
The medium I’m most known for is a mixture of painting and sculpture. It was taught to me by the creator of this particular work and I am lucky enough to be the only person he taught in 50 years. It’s really like winning the art lottery in a way. My ten year mentorship has been a deep dive into the medium and artistic lifestyle. To explain it simply, I take a specialized aluminum plate, score it with various tools that interact with overhead light which creates a holographic and three-dimensional quality that shifts and moves as a viewer walks around the painting. Once the scoring is done, its sealed, painted with transparent colors that allow the scored metal to shine through and then sealed again creating a glass like finish. The end result really must be seen in person to full appreciate the movement and illusion. It’s truly one of the most unique mediums out there today. I also paint traditional abstract paintings as well as photography, but I would say I’m most known for my metal paintings.
Do you look back particularly fondly on any memories from childhood?
I was fortunate to move around a lot as a child and see different parts of Texas and Oklahoma. I met so many groups of friends and lived in some amazing places that allowed me to just be a kid. I think all of those memories made for a really fun childhood without a lot of worry or stress. We would take many vacations to places like upstate New York to visit family and just have a lot of memories of travel that kept things exciting.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.ericbreish.com
- Email: eric@ericbreish.com
- Instagram: eric_breish_art
- Facebook: Eric Breish
- Other: www.vickerscollection.com (aspen and vail) www.anartegallery09.com (san antonio) www.deandaygallery.com (houston)
Image Credit:
Boxing Rose Photography (Zack Marks)
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