I am a digital visualist.

Noun: Someone who has tendencies towards visual aesthetics and creates such things that rely on light for expression in the digital realm.

My artistic and entrepreneurial career has been an ever unfolding stream that gets its flow from my innate passion and creativity. In college I was asked: “Hey Eric, do you sell your artwork?”….. “My what?” I replied. Capturing my surroundings and experimenting with editing came out of no conscious effort or reason, it just did. I was pretty surprised to hear someone considered my silly edits as art. But I took the lead and then printed for the first time. That changed everything.

Bringing something from the digital realm into the physical was a powerful experience for me. I started to print like mad and would set up a table on academic walk on my college’s campus and wait and hope that I would get someone to take interest. I got that, and then some. Not only did people like the photography, they liked it so much that they bought it. Students, parents, alums, staff. It seemed to resonate with all different types of people. Answering peoples questions about my shots made me realize that there was in fact artistry within me, thus my journey as an artist began.

This was the first piece of mine that ever sold. People get into arguments if the way it is pictured above is correct, or if it is upside down. The reality is that I saw my favorite building in this puddle and I took the picture, so in fact, this is the correct original orientation, but hat hasn’t stopped people from putting it up the other way around in their homes.

My academic studies which revolved around foreign languages and international relations brought me to many far away lands which allowed me to capture majestic landscapes, alien looking plants and food, and varying levels of human life ranging from elite cosmopolitan to impoverished mountaintops. These experiences seeped deep within my subconscious as well as my photography and my perspective expanded.

For being a midwestern Caucasian, diversity runs deep in my blood. I yearn for connection, understanding, and humanity with people from all cultures and walks of life. After returning from school and working in international business development, I founded my own business selling art and doing photography as a service. An explosion of diversity emerged in my work, ranging from the materials that I was printing on, to the types of photography gigs that I was taking. An art festival downtown Chicago with hundreds of other professional artists? Sure let’s try it. Taking pictures of jewelry, models, real estate, pets, or anything else that I had never studied, been paid for, or shot… Yes, let’s do it! I took every chance (some may call it a risk) to step outside of my comfort zone and approach projects from an autodidactic, artistic place. Before I knew it I was shooting anything and everything, creating all types of digital visual media such as advertisements, videos, timelapses, graphics, aerials, and module LED light up art pieces. Print on a pillow? Absolutely. A coaster? Sounds nice. A magnet? A bed spread? A shower curtain? Yes, I love my shower curtain…

What kept me going and expanding was the feedback I was receiving, the positive reception of printing on unique mediums using materials that had been absent from the art markets for decades. I found ways to reincorporate light into the piece itself which was part of what made my work stand out, aside from the extreme saturation. But even this mode of creation whether artistic or commercial came to a plateau. It started to become boring for me to take pictures of food, real estate space, or whatever it was without it going one step further. I wanted to apply my work to something, not just create it and let it float around in cyberspace.

On two fateful days, I serendipitously met up with two old friends from high school that I hadn’t seen for years. I asked what they were doing, one was writing content (web copy), and the other was doing video content. Two skills that I had not developed fully. We shared a vision of using our creative skills to help foster business success with other businesses. We created a nimble content creation and marketing studio, and together we helped to distill, capture, and spread the word of what these companies were doing to the masses. I taught myself web design to take my applied photography one step further, and built the websites of a number of emerging entrepreneurs with the help of my fellow writers, videographers, and graphic designers.

Creating happiness with my art, creating fulfillment with my photography, and creating prosperity with my brand development all have one thing in common. They start as an idea or goal in the physical realm, and through my creativity I digitize the vision into something that is valuable and joyful for others. My creative vision coupled with my technical ability is my greatest gift and I vow to use it to bestow happiness, growth, and prosperity onto others.

With my work, I hope to expand the perspective and enhance and livelihood of other people. If there’s a nascent idea, even a figment of imagination, it has the potential to evolve into reality. All it takes is a vision, and a crack of the digital whip to bring a dream in the physical realm to a reality in the digital one, for as far as I'm concerned, and life has showed me, Everything is Possible.