We recently had the chance to connect with Erika Givens and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Erika, thank you for taking the time to reflect back on your journey with us. I think our readers are in for a real treat. There is so much we can all learn from each other and so thank you again for opening up with us. Let’s get into it: What do the first 90 minutes of your day look like?
At about 4:45am, I wake up next to my snoring tea cup Pomeranain Wilbur, scoop him up and head downstairs to drop a bag of chai tea into the base of my metal moka pot and start a nice strong coffee brewing. Then I drink a shot of kefir, followed by a shot of homemade pomegranate, golden beet, green apple, carrot, cucumber, lemon, turmeric, and ginger juice. I refill my bird feeder just off the kitchen window, take a moment to breathe in the misty La Jolla morning marine layer, and read the news while waiting for my coffee to brew. I join my husband (also a very early riser) in our super comfy chairs in the mini-library just off of my studio to review the day… Who’s driving who where, What time any zooms are, Does anyone need a ride to the airport, Do we need to defrost anything, and Are there any games or practices we need to get to? (3 kids!) Then I sit down at the computer in the early morning quiet of my cozy studio and look thru emails. And finally, if it’s not an administrative or marketing morning (both of which necessary evils I despise!), then I bee-line to my big fat worn wooden work table to continue pouring, glueing, sanding, sketching, mixing, stirring, etc whatever I was working on the previous day until it’s time to drive my high schooler to school. Best 90 minutes of the day in my opinion : )
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
My name is Erika Givens. I am a La Jolla, California-based artist happily collecting, inspecting, forming, and framing nature’s curious materials into dimensional wall sculpture art using equal parts heart, head & hand. I was educated at University of California at Santa Barbara in Environmental Studies, Art Center College of Design in Pasadena in Graphic Design & Packaging, as well as in some of the world’s most fascinating natural and urban settings ever since.
I work largely on commission by private art collectors, interior designers, luxury real estate agents, and art consultancies serving the residential & hospitality industries at home and internationally. I just recently returned from installing my work on a 33’ wide wall in a private residence in Dammam, Saudi Arabia. With the coastal light and breeze energizing my studio, I practice slow, sustainable-minded art, with an acute attention to form, texture, and shadow, while incorporating the sea and the soil into almost everything I do. I am highly influenced by subtleties in the performance, color, and transience of light. I am energized and stimulated by the endless opportunities to invent and re-imagine ways to add dimension to, enliven, and energize flat surfaces, shift and flirt with light and shadow, and play with or map out materials into refreshing new relationships. My process can best be described as transforming tiny dimensional units into larger ordered interconnected systems by the accumulation of slow patient gestures repeated over time.
From the seeds of inspiration, concept evolution, gathering of materials, and building process, to the delivery and final installation, I am deeply devoted to what I do and feel incredibly lucky to have the opportunity to share it with you at Voyage SD and others who love and value art.
Amazing, so let’s take a moment to go back in time. What was your earliest memory of feeling powerful?
I was at art school and one of my graphic design professors, Roland Young, was not only legendary in the business, but notorious for being absolutely cut throat during art crits. He would demand perfection, 1000% commitment to the concept, and if it’s not intentional, ironic, mind-bending, and clever then it’s garbage and will be not only torn off the crit wall, but stomped on. Needless to say, the weak did not survive week 1. At one point Roland’s wrath swung in my direction and a presentation I had poured weeks of blood sweat and tears into was torn down and stomped on. In my mind it might even have been lit on fire and jackhammered. Holding back the urge to cry, I gathered my “garbage” and headed back to the drawing board. After several rounds of this week after week, giving this assignment absolutely everything I had, late into the night and early into the morning, researching, sketching, working, reworking, and obsessed over until it almost became my identity… I finally delivered something that stood the *Roland snuff test* and stayed up on the wall. The piece eventually ended up in the art school’s highly esteemed gallery and I knew not only was it good… it was great. I had forced myself to work at a level unknown to me before. I thought I understood perseverance and hard work but now I knew just how far I could push myself past what I thought were my limits. I understood what those two words really meant. Powerful doesn’t even begin to describe it!
What fear has held you back the most in your life?
People pleasing. I made a career of making everyone feel A-OK around me. Never a cross word or an uncomfortable silence, never a harsh critique or an honest observation, never a boundary drawn or a favor left ungifted. I finally became exhausted and hollow feeling one day. I also began to find making art intolerably and unsustainably stressful… it was taking rather than supplying me with energy because as we all know -WE CANNOT PLEASE EVERYONE WITH OUR ART. We can actually please very few people as it turns out. Learning this lesson over the long game and being OK with it and finding my inner WHY changed everything. If I had only grasped this concept at 18 instead of 48!!!
I think our readers would appreciate hearing more about your values and what you think matters in life and career, etc. So our next question is along those lines. What would your closest friends say really matters to you?
Using my creativity and warmth to nurture the creativity, electricity, and goodness in others…. while laughing of course!
Okay, so let’s keep going with one more question that means a lot to us: What do you understand deeply that most people don’t?
A lot of people understand this and I feel lucky to be one of them…. That humans do not need substances to get by, get along, get through, have fun, or pass the time.
We are perfectly designed by the universe to be alone without being lonely, to be quiet without hearing silence, to go slow without losing patience, to be bone-still without being bored, to hear our own isolated breath, to experience our blood pulsing just under our skin, to feel our own raw feelings, to rest our feet in the soil and our hands in our lap and sit for a while and just BE. Allowing for all of these conditions can bring you closer to really being present during this very short and extremely precious time on Earth!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.erikagivens.com
- Instagram: erikagivens_art
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/erikagivens/
