Bay of Islands artist Erika Pearce speaks about her current projects.
Video / Michael Cunningham
Te Tai Tokerau is abundant with a plethora of talented artists from a range of disciplines, but what makes them tick, and who are they? Reporter Brodie Stone finds out. This is Erika Pearce.
Multi-disciplinary artist Erika Pearce has left pieces of her heart from cape to bluff and across the globe. You can find her art in Japan, Fiji, Thailand, on Tiki Taane’s guitar, in schools, public toilets, and street corners.
She’s the talent behind the famous Paihia sea wall mural, a work inspired by the Bay of Island’s sea life, and a specimen of her artistic ability.
Pearce gathers inspiration from the world around her - with nature as her muse. Her artistry is fuelled by an “innate sense” of wanting to make the world beautiful, while also appreciating the beauty within it, she says.
She’s a self-proclaimed child at heart and works hard at keeping that part of herself alive, and it’s easy to see why her art evokes a sense of wonder. Her home is a space built for inspiration, with gardens overflowing with an abundance of food and tropical plants.
“Since moving up to Northland I’ve just unleashed my inner gardener, so that inspires and informs my artwork as well. Just being in amongst plants and flowers and form and pattern and colour. It gives me a chance to let my brain whirr away on concepts and projects,” she said.
“I’m doing all the things I loved as a kid. I loved painting and drawing and playing with plants and picking flowers and growing vegetables and being in nature.”
Erika Pearce's Kerikeri home is a creatives haven. Photo / Michael Cunningham
Pockets of inspiration can be found everywhere, from thrifted items in the ‘Dusty Duck Saloon’, a jungle mural in a chill-out loft area, to her workspace where she’s currently working on 2024 zodiac calendars.
Pearce, a “festival girl at heart” unabashedly professes one of her many hobbies includes dressing up.
There’s even a dress-up room in her home. It’s a place to leave your woes at the beaded curtain, stepping into a world of colours, patterns, sparkles, feathers and sequins. Vibrant headpieces line the shelf edges, mimicking themes of Frida Kahlo, Abba, Priscilla Queen of the Desert and burlesque.
Erika Pearce and her husband are keen festival-goers with an array of costumes. Photo / Michael Cunningham
Erika’s private world doesn’t shy away from colour and embracing the different, and the same rings true for her art.
She said painting faces - something that many artists tend to shy away from - is something she does “because it’s a challenge”.
Pearce celebrated 11 years as a self-employed artist in August, and her CV is filled to the brim with what she calls “pinch me moments”.
From Tiki Taane’s ‘Dub Soldier’ guitar to a Kiwiana mural in Japan for the Olympics, the list goes on.
Image 1 of 4: This mural on the waterfront at Paihia in the Bay of Islands was created in 2019 by artist Erika Pearce as part of the Upsurge Bay of Islands Arts Festival.Photo / Michael Cunningham
She said much of her work has come through word of mouth, and getting to where she is now has been down to a mixture of dedication, practice, and passion.
“I was always up for a project, I wasn’t afraid to say no and even if I didn’t know how to do something, I’d learn. I just put myself out there.“
Pearce said working on the Paihia mural metres in the air on a cherry picker in 2019 was a “dream come true”.
“It just about broke me, my back is still sore,” she joked.
“We were really time-pressured and I was pressured by the tide. I literally worked from sunrise to sunset.”
Recent commissions include the Mitre 10 Waipapa playground, Plant Zone Direct in Waipapa and Kerikeri Primary School. She said her art has offered the opportunity to experience so many different people and inspire them.
She likes that painting murals involves using her whole body and is something “accessible” to others.
“It’s in people’s space without being intrusive. It’s just in their surroundings which I think is quite magical about art.”
When asked how it feels to see her art in so many different spaces, she said she almost has to disconnect from it once it’s done. Sometimes she has to sit herself down to be with her work, because often she may never see it again unless it’s on a “little box” on a phone screen.
Kerikeri-based artist Erika Pearce creating a mural at Plant Zone Direct garden centre in Waipapa. Photo / Michael Cunningham
“It’s quite funny because when I’m there and I’m on the wall, I’m so focused on the paintbrush in my hand and the spray in my hand. Nothing else matters,” she said.
“But stepping away, when the drop sheets have been removed, tapes been peeled off and seeing the wall in its natural state, I kind of almost disconnect from it. It becomes everybody’s after that.”
Brodie Stone is the education and general news reporter at the Advocate. Brodie recently graduated from Massey University and has a special interest in the environment and investigative reporting.
