Eric Mize Spotlight
Eric Mize
Written by Liv Barton, April 2025
Eric Mize has been an artist his whole life, but considers himself a “second-career artist”. Before creating art full time, Mize worked in corporate engineering and served active duty with the Air Force in Honduras. His travel, lived experiences, and life path all influence his work.
When Mize was still working as an engineer, he began a series of 12 paintings, called “Neighbors” of at-risk peoples from all over the world. With Mize’s connections to non-profit organizations on the ground, he would receive photos of people from friends or from his own travels abroad. He then uses these photos, after playing with them Photoshop to bring out all of the dimensions, as his reference points when painting.
Each painting tells a deep, compelling story, seeking “to celebrate the wonder of a given culture”, while spreading awareness of what’s going on across the globe. All of the proceeds made from these paintings are given to the non-profit organizations that are helping communities. Since beginning the series, he’s created 18 paintings, and has sold nearly half of them. The series has also allowed him to hone in on his figure painting, a skill he enjoys perfecting.
Then, the pandemic hit and Mize recalibrated the art he was creating. He began to create more happy, upbeat, connection-oriented paintings, in a moment when everyone needed some extra joy. His series “It’s De-Lovely” features people laughing, sharing, and living together.
“Life is better when you’re sharing,” Mize says, “It’s mostly about the connection between friends.”
Some scenes are from his favorite films and some are images of his loved one. This is where Mize’s wine motif that is woven throughout his work begins. Mize is a wine lover, and his most recent series “Tasting Notes” pays homage to the connection and shared experiences wine invokes.
One day, in his backyard, Mize wine glass was empty. His wife started picking blackberries. He took a photo of her picking blackberries against a bright blue sky and began painting the scene. He focuses on the individual tasting notes of good, properly made wine. Mize can recall what wine made him fall in love with wine, what they call a “wine-piphany”. Mize says he can’t, however, recall his artistic epiphany. “It’s been more smaller experiences,” Mize says, “experiences here and there”.
“It does feel bigger than me sometimes,” Mize says. Throughout Mize’s life, he has recalibrated his world view multiple times. One thing that has remained constant in Mize life is the spirituality that can be experienced from creating art.
“When you step back and go ‘Okay, wow, can I do that again?’” Mize says, is one of the most rewarding moments when creating art.
