Eric Brooks relocated to the Bay Area in 2001 after spending the previous three years traveling. The newness and solitude of those months can be seen in his work, which is already known for intense, expressionist characterizations of emotion through varying layers of color and heavy texture. Eric also uses the Ernstian technique, eclaboussage. Turpentine and other solvents dropped onto fresh canvas or intermittently throughout the painting process, which suggest direction, orientation, motion, and energy of a dynamic entity.
“I try to focus attention on an element of an image rather than the image itself. Deconstructing into lines, shapes, color, and texture. With the increased use of abstraction, try to convey values, sentiment, and emotion outside the acquired habits of perception. These paintings blend beauty and deformity while letting you pick and choose as to which is in control. Every piece is unique with what it holds and what it hides.”
The indirect connection between artist and canvas can be seen in the seeming static nature of color and movement, which allow the viewer to become absorbed into the experience of vision. The layering process also allows the paintings to take on various depths depending on the angle and intensity of light. This gives the strangled images a life of their own and the ability to tell a story, creating a natural world nature does not know.
Eric uses many types of paint along with found objects in his abstracts. These abstracts enter the viewer into many realms; worlds where beauty and sincerity mingle with greed, lust, and fear. Each piece is a story unto itself, yet part of a greater whole.