Art Chowder January | February, Issue 25 | Page 15

Art Chowder: What got you into podcasts?
Erik: My wife Lyn had her own podcast and
encouraged me to start one with her. I tried to talk
her out of it. I could see it was a huge amount of
work and I wasn’t sure how to monetize it. We were
both doing our own start-up businesses already so
to start another business with an unknown return on
investment was a bit crazy to me. But resistance was
futile and it’s been an extraordinary experience. I’m
incredibly thankful we did it; our guests continue to
open our hearts and minds and we just did our first
paid gig together!
First
and for most.
Head downtown to celebrate the creativity of local artists and
enjoy free refreshments while you mingle with friends old and
new. Find participating locations at downtownspokane.org, and
make plans to see it first, hear it first, and taste it first.
Art Chowder: Congrats! When you are in the
creative process, what do you do for inspiration?
Erik: Mostly I find inspiration from the
wood.  Sometimes when I’m making a practical
piece, like shelves, I’ll have dimensions
that I’m working with that are relatively straight
forward.  But I almost always find inspiration
from the shape or character of the wood.  I must have
been raised by border collies because I have been
chasing and collecting unique sticks and hunks of
wood all my life.
Art Chowder: *LOL* Who are some of your
favorite artists and why?
Erik:  I usually have a binary first response to other
artists. I’m either turned on or turned off.  If it lights
me up, I look deeper to explore what were they trying
to do, and how I relate to it. My favorite reaction is
when I think I could correlate something they did
into my work — that is a great motivational energy.  
Lately I’ve seen a lot of Jeff Koons sculpture work,
and while I respect it, I really don’t care for most of
his stuff. On the other hand, some of the work I’ve
done has been disappointing to me.
There’s a difference from what you imagine, can
execute and what you end up with. And there’s a
weird sort of lesson in that for me. The fact that
some pieces I didn’t really care for and finished only
because I’d started them, were the ones that ended up
being popular or selling right away. Other pieces that
I liked a lot have not sold. What is that? That’s art.
It’s different for everybody.
January Poster Artist | Megan Perkins | Spokesman Review Building
Megan Perkins is an artist, teacher, and native of the Pacific Northwest. She works primarily
in watercolor with a love of color and expressive line. She is most well known for her Artist’s
Eye on Spokane series, which was started during a yearlong project of painting at a new lo-
cation in Spokane every week for 52 weeks. Her paintings of the Spokane area are featured
in a monthly column in the Spokane Coeur D’Alene Living magazine.
For event listings visit firstfridayspokane.org
January
Most venues open
5-8pm | February 2020
15