FINE ARTIST - E.J. WICKES

A look into the artistic work of contemporary artist, Eric J. Wickes.

Magazine Cover "Acolyte" By: Artist: E.J. Wickes
Cinematographer and Editor: Chris Peterson

By: Guinevere Grance

A great fine artist is able to entice and enamor, draw you in, and then let you have your own experience. He is able to, for a moment, capture his audience, and then never let them forget that moment and that feeling. One such great, exciting and vibrant contemporary artist is, E.J. Wickes, always thought provoking, always clever, always drawing you in and guiding you with a strong emotion. He has a flare to quietly point something out, and make you think, feel and react.

Never seemingly locked into one narrative voice, E.J. Wickes has a fresh tone, a fresh style, and a modern command of contemporary art. He does not follow the pack, he leads it. He has found his own voice and style, and it is refreshing and absorbing.

Not to compare, but merely to correlate, E.J. Wickes' early work has that flare and flavor recognized by the landscape painters of the 19th Century; only Mr. Wickes' modernized it into contemporary art, like that of Helen Torr with her soft, fluid moodiness; who had also, similarly to E.J. Wickes, studied and trained at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. Both artists have taken a landscape of sorts, and in E. J.Wickes' case the "atmosphere", whereby they have interpreted what they see into an easy transposition of color and motion. In further correlation, his works' style and feel are also easily associated with the 20th Century abstract expressionists, Mark Rothko, Paul Jenkins and Morris Louis. All four artists, E.J. Wickes included, adhere to the vision of action and color, each with their own emotional envelopment.

E.J. Wickes in his artful process begins with color, which then evolves organically into an emotion. It is the evolution of the emotional feeling that dictates its will onto the canvas; and then into the psyches of the viewing audience. His art allows the viewer to let their mind's eye depart from their norm, and connect with their physical and emotional senses through his exquisite use of jewel-toned color, texture, and strokes; thereby promoting an illusion within his painted atmosphere.

Some of his atmospheric work feels action based with a gentle motion, which almost seems youthful, compared to some of his later work, which is crisper and more defined. And as he progresses, his art too progresses. Most recently, he has entered the multi media visual arts. For him this is a natural progression as he forays into a collaborative filmmakers' medium with cinematography Chris Peterson. This type of collaborative medium is really no surprise as it is an extension of his progression as an action artist and his admiration for the art of film. E.J. Wickes as an artist and as a pioneer has embarked upon a new multi-media art, the digital-motion magazine cover. In today's technological new digital medium, E.J. Wickes provides a digital motion experience, relevant to the audience. He combines both the humanly gentle and the edgy parameters into a soft swirl of thought, emotion and motion. This modern medium, for E.J. Wickes greatly lends to his expressive voice, and naturally deep emotions.

The digital motion art cover for this magazine is a derivative from his multi-media performance piece titled, "Acolyte" which was from, "Sub-Ritual", one of his many exhibitions.

E.J. Wickes', "Acolyte", was a statement to his own internal struggle with ritualistic extremes. He cleverly combines elements of the physical actions, smoking and yoga in order to create a cynical marriage of two rituals. These rituals, which increasingly antagonize each other's existence the closer they get to one another, are however paradoxically and ironically linked together with one singular commonality, breath. Breath of life. Breath of death. This multi media performance, with its dancers, digital cinematic effects, and characterized ancient music, appears to portray a genuine ceremonial tribute to the power of life. But that power diminishes and slowly transforms into a melancholy ritual of self-consuming death. And in artistic question, poised within movement, is, "are the dancers moving in celebration of life or are they dancing their final sacrament towards the altar?" The music and constant rhythm of the lilting cello, and the Melchizedek singers incorporate a medieval overtone of Gregorian chants; whereby adding to the monastery-churchlike, ritualistic behaviors and feelings. The music may be interpreted as either reverent praise to the death of life, or as a metaphor to the Sirens, the seductive, sultry women who beckon us with the promise of requited dark desires, always there to exploit our cravings, and addictions.

All of E.J. Wickes' fine art promotes and evokes feelings; all types of feelings, from simple childlike smiles to blatant human terror. His medium for affectation is paint, people and pixels; as he paints, creates and directs in the digital realm, and also directs performance work. He seems solely guided by nature's vibrancy, the human psyche, and the movements of the world.

One such artistic psyche provocation was installation or performance work that exuded a fearful rush of emotion was, "Threat Condition Orange". This was a thoroughly phenomenal piece that was enacted in the modern day reality, of performance visual art. The gist of the piece was, men dressed in military uniforms, grabbed a random person while the unsuspecting audience stood-by watching. Under the auspices of 911 and Homeland Security Mandates, as if the terror alert status had risen to condition orange, the militia-style dressed men grabbed their victim and hauled them off into the back room, as if proceeding to interrogate them. As the viewers followed into the room, all they found were over turned chairs, remnants of violence and a soulless video projection on the wall of the "disappeared" victim's interrogation. All the while, the passers-by, and the audience, stood in dismay and watched and listened, while their emotions were on high alert. Every person saw the same thing, but each person felt and reacted differently. The riveted audience had no idea that this was part of E.J. Wickes' cleaver visual performance art exhibition. The thought provoking rhetorical question being asked was, ‘how complacent have we become as Americans to an authority willing to cast aside our civil liberties in exchange for our security?' A brilliant piece of work; engaging, invigorating, enthralling, everything of which great art is made.

As E.J. Wickes prepares for his next exhibition in the spring, he has chosen downtown Des Moines as his playful canvas. As of this interview, as he conjures up artistic and directorial ideas to draw his audience into his relevant visual art experience, he begins a still piece in his studio.

His new piece, an installation, inseparable from his wall, is highly intriguing. As he moves through the process of creating and applying, he mixes mediums and gives us a destination and an added dimension to his thoughts, beliefs and his contemplative piece.

This latest work, "untitled cochinas" has a sense of communication and movement, and is actually born from former the installation pieces, "Apparitions I and II, and from the Ghost Painting Series". It's a mixed media, oil on canvas, with joint compound and latex wall paint; artistically conceived and executed. The piece has several sectional textured canvases, with surrounding sections, appearing to fade- back into the wall, like spirits dissipating. It is a truly fascinating art piece, with its movement driven by color and its physical direction paradoxically forced by texture.

E.J. Wickes' strong emotion, his integral use of gem-tone colors, his thoughtful ebb and flow of motion, his use of all mediums, are all a part of the threads, which make up the fabric, of this most exceptional artist of our time.

It is great men, with great thoughts of art, who reach great influence.

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