| 
Erik's
art can be purchased
from his website at:
Brown
Bear Products |
Erik
Thompson
is a young Alaskan artist and Special Olympic
athlete. He was born when his parents, Steve and Linda were
trapping in the Lake Clark area of Alaska. His first years
were spent wrapped in a sleeping bag, strapped in a box on
top of a dog sled, piled with all the family's worldly goods.
Life was hard and by age 3, they moved into the fishing town
of Dillingham, Alaska on the coast.
His
parents knew one of Erik's favorite activities, besides cross-country
skiing and watching videos, was tracing. For years, he would
lay tracing paper over coloring books and magazine pictures,
outlining shapes and images, especially of animals.
Later,
they pulled together some pens and paper and went to the library
to scope out books with animal pictures. Then they took away
Erik's tracing paper and told him to look at a picture and
just draw.
Once
he got started, the floodgates opened. Erik kept drawing,
for hours at a time. Thompson knew she saw promise but wasn't
sure the drawings were good enough to be considered art. For
20 years, she had heard Erik described as limited. It was
hard to overcome such a curtailed description of his potential.
Erik
has now graduated from tiny Kenny Lake High School. He has
art in several continents of the world and new markets are
being pursued daily.
Erik
was the artist for the 2001 Special Olympic World
Winter Games, the largest sporting event to ever
occur in the state of Alaska. His art was used for advertisements
on buses in Anchorage, statewide news papers, and magazines.
It was also used on the cover of the cook book and the poster
for the games. |
