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. |
