Local Artwork in Oakland

Immerse yourself in rotating exhibits that showcase
local talent, bringing vibrant creativity to every corner of Bloc15.

Mark Erickson

American painter Mark Erickson was first inspired to paint by his grandmother, who was an artist herself. He has since exhibited in major cities across the United States. Erickson works with acrylic on canvas or wood and sometimes adds additional collage elements. Inspired by literature, comics, and music, his artistic process is like a dance- constantly changing and full of spontaneity. Erickson’s abstract expressionist works are bright, atmospheric, and humorous. www.markerickson.com

Elena Erickson

Elena Erickson grew up in the country-side of northern Switzerland in the village of Safenwil. Outside of city life and influences, the forest surrounded her home, and from her youth, most life adventures were motivated by nature. Moving later to the Bay Area in California and close the ocean’s edge, the outdoors form the imagery in the paintings she is currently creating.

“While painting I often experience that confidence and no fear of loss is an essential part of the process. The more natural the movement, the more natural the look of the surface. It’s an adventure through different colors and shapes, inspirations and observations, where I can pick the parts that speak to me the most, and put them together in the search of harmony. The focus on the practice of creating matters. It’s important to me to work continuously, so the desired image can come forth. I strongly believe there’s always something blossoming from something else, and following the directions of your own light, will cast new shadows along the way. Ultimately it’s also important to remember to have fun and to enjoy the flow of color.”

Elena paints with the history of painting behind her, like all painters have, but the age of today where technology rules, painting must flourish beyond the coldness of staring at lit screens. It again becomes a very personal experience. A less traveled avenue to follow, but where the roads intersect, painting initiates an important career in which to go. Willem de Kooning once said, “I think I’m painting a picture of two women, but it may turn out to be a landscape.” – Or even a view out of a window. For more information on Elena or to view other painting images, go to her website at www.elenaerickson.com

Nathan Phelps

I’m a Bay Area artist, I’ve been making art for 23 years and mural for the last 6. I became an artist when I reset my life at 22 by dropping out of normal society. I moved into a VW camper and apprenticed at a wilderness survival school in Mt. Shasta CA where I learned how to become truly self-sufficient by living off the land and not needing society for my survival needs. at the time I was having intense visions of patterns which prompted me to start drawing. My artistic process is based solely on observing the feeling inside every mark I make. Fat, fast, curved, straight every stroke has a different quality I can feel inside my body. I developed an art style lead by pure intuition realizing every piece that I make is a perfect expression of my mind in the moment. Everything I make is perfect, not always successful or event good but perfect in its expression of who I am in the moment. over time drawings evolved into paintings and paintings grew into murals.

I’m most interested in the specific way art communicates our essential human nature from a hidden place we can’t get at any other way. My work is an exploration of my mind and when it’s most successful I believe it offers a way for others to see a hidden place inside their minds as well. www.nathanrichardphelps.com

Zachary Sweet

The Mural for BLOC15 was created to honor the ancient forest and people that enriched the allurement too Oakland. The redwoods of the east bay originally reached more than thirty feet in diameter, thriving on slightly more inland sun and warm than their coastal kin. To be in the presence of living things so enormous gives it’s company a perspective of how small, we as a human race, truly are. by the early 1860’s the old-growth redwoods in the east bay had been felled and logging activity has shifted to the Santa Cruz mountains and Northern California. An old railway track that used to haul lumber ran through the redwood forest and transported via train to the “Jack London” area. By 1880 the African American community had built a healthy network of commercial, educational and social institutions including churches, private schools, social clubs, music venues and recreation centers by the end of the nineteenth century. The Jazz scene gained prominence in Oakland from the 1920’s influenced by Chicago and New Orleans styles brought by waves of workers migrating in to work on the railroads.

This Mural is an illustrative symbol of these great old giants and a memory of the people that created Oakland’s infrastructure. It also serves as a symbol for our society’s exhaustion of our ability to breath. Breathing is a necessity, and as innocent human lives are taken and the destruction of our forests continue, the world loses its ability to breathe. www.zacharysweet.com