Motionism
A unique art process identity created by Erick Stow, Motionism came about as an expression of path. Iconically, pop artists have worked to identify and incorporate surreal identities into their artwork to articulate best what we experience, intake, and ultimately produce and reflect up.
Using strong lines from pop artists like Keith Haring and Roy Lichtenstein, merged with the style of Italian Futurism, Erick Stow has created a memory of a path experience. Inspired by conversations with his childhood friend, Jake Justice, one intrinsic blanket element remains a primary focus of our everyday life: everything is moving; everything is moving because we are always moving. Try to stop your blood cells, your heartbeat, your breath, and you will understand.
In 2016 at Hyperslow yoga studio and café on Fairfax Ave in the Miracle Mile district of Los Angeles, Erick worked for seven weeks for catharsis and clarity. Conversations with Asher Luzatto, owner of Hyperslow, helped the two to coin the descriptor, “Motionism.”
When Asher and Erick first met, Erick had been peddling small works of art from Winnipeg, Canada through Vancouver, Seattle, Portland, and San Francisco, down to his destination of Los Angeles. Asher asked for a mural and paid mural prices. What Erick gave Asher was an 80,000 sq. in. installation spanning Erick’s understanding of life from abstract art to video games, film, and beyond.
The final product was an oil-painted cacophony and a true masterpiece. Erick was inspired by the Greek legend of The Labyrinth. Across the street at The Los Angeles County Museum of Art, as a mirroring coincidence, Guillermo del Toro held his Labyrinth exhibit during Erick’s 7-week residency.
Using thrift-store art and manufacturing canvas, and with the help of Hyperslow’s Emily Davenport, Erick pieced and primed 72 tableaus before finding the center of this mirage. Then came seven arduous weeks of painting. At the end of the seven weeks, upon painting the centre of his Labyrinth, Erick was gifted Mike Dargas’ Los Angeles hyperrealist brush set by Mike’s agent, Jacob.
Erick Stow has had an interest in digital art since his first interactions with mid-1990s computer technology. He began working on word-art programs at age 10, graduating to designing business cards for his friends at age 13. In 2018, Erick’s work soared to new pixelated heights as he time-lapse recorded the process of his work at the behest of his client, Rob Contreras.