Artist Spotlight: Eric Burghard

Eric Burghard, 39, is the artist spotlight for this issue.
Burghard is originally from New York and moved to Washington state in 1992. After moving, he attended and graduated from Auburn Senior High School where he discovered his love for art.
In 2005 Eric started attending Green River College where he pursued “a civil engineer type careers”, but he ended up being dissatisfied with it and chose to seek other career paths. After leaving for a while, Burghard decided to head back to Green River in 2015 where he attended classes in the hopes of getting a transfer degree in computer science.
Realizing that, computer science might not be a career path he wished to pursue either he decided to chase a different degree and ended up with an with an Associates in Arts (AA). “This path was not for me and my wife convinced me that I was good at art and to pursue it as a career.” Burghard’s wife is extremely supportive of him and it is this strong base that gave him the courage to seek out his dream. He said that his wife, peers, and teachers are what inspires him the most to create his art.
He had finally discovered his passion and dedicated his life to creating his work through drawing and graphic design. After Green River, he would like to transfer either Seattle Art Institute, UW, or Central.
When Burghard encounters creativity blocks (being unable to be creative) he said that he practices techniques to get the juices flowing again. One: step away from it, two: have something to eat and drink, and three: go back to it.
Key components of being an artist are that they must have patience, work ethic, and persistence to create magic. The advice Burghard would give to budding artists is, “To try or try again. If that does not help, Google it.”
Having idols can be important to an artist. Seeing different kinds of art can inspire an artist to conceptualize and develop their own unique style. Burghard said that the artists who inspire him the most are Seurat’ and Michelangelo both who are known for their paintings.
The correct tools can also be extremely important to an artist. Burghard explains what he frequently uses pencils, conte, watercolors, charcoal, and photoshop to make his art.
One assignment the talked about which he calls “OhSnap!” he explained, “… we had to look at a corner of a room and draw it, it was rather boring but it helped me get one-point perspective down.” He then explained how he spiced up the drawing somehow incorporating an octopus into it. Which shows the unique way Eric uses his tools create his works.
No doubt Burghard is a talented artist. If you are interested in seeing his artwork, it is being displayed in President Johnson’s office.