Live event artist Sharon Ep1c
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Sharon Hodgson, known professionally as Sharon Ep1c, is a recent arrival in Carleton County NB after having called Montreal and Halifax home base for many years. She is already known in this area for her live event painting over the past few years at the Dooryard Festival, the McCain Gallery and the Buttermilk Creek Festival.
In fact, Ep1c has painted live at over 1000 events in the last seven years including the Harvest Festival in Fredericton, Salty Jam in Saint John and Folly Fest in Gagetown NB as well assorted “corporate gigs” and even weddings. These are well documented on her website.
Ep1c earned a diploma in visual communications from Alberta’s Medicine Hat College and has been professionally involved in design since the age of 16 when she started drawing a newspaper comic strip. She also does stand-up comedy and has written a book about live painting.
Sharon, welcome to our little hidden corner of wonderful New Brunswick. How did you find us?
I’m a bit of a nomad, really, and I don’t have any roots, but I do have a knack for finding things. Like this furnished house in the middle of nowhere. I seem to gravitate to all the good people and I like this area ─ it’s as if you’ve walked into [the movie] “It’s a Wonderful Life” and it’s really charming. The people are friendly and the colloquialisms are great. “Dooryard” for instance.
Which reminds me of the Dooryard Festival in Woodstock where I first saw you paint. How did this “live” painting begin?
I was living in Halifax, working from home as a freelance graphic designer, doing all my work at the computer and I became too comfortable. Never left the apartment. But I got very courageous one day and went to a bar, painted the scene there, sold it. I worked up the nerve and did it again, realizing that I had to focus on lively gatherings ─ music, dancing.
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| Self-portrait, acrylic |
Three and a half years ago, I wanted out of a bad situation and that led me to hitch-hike a little and paint at festivals. I was painting at Folly Fest, the work was a huge hit and that inspired me to invent the “epic easel” and build a six-by-nine-foot frame so I could do these giant paintings. Such a rush! People started contacting me and I had to go on the road so I bought a crappy car and went cross-country, stopping at bars, painting, making enough to buy gas and move on.
And you’re taking your performance art into New Brunswick schools, right?
Yes, I’m currently painting in schools to teach kids about live painting and I also want them to know it is possible to have an artistic career. I go into a school, kids can watch me paint as they’re playing music or whatever, then they see how I interpret what I see and they can talk to me about it. I also want to do an art supplies fundraiser push after that. Basically it’s something to help schools create a slush fund for art supplies.
So now I’m the magic money fairy. Ha!
So now I’m the magic money fairy. Ha!
Your life is hectic in spring, summer, fall. Then winter comes and…
I do fund-raisers. There’s rarely a fee and my work is auctioned off at the end and we split the proceeds. A giant canvas can go for as much as $5000 ─ I did one for a youth center in Montreal earlier this year and donated the whole amount to them ─ and a smaller painting sells for up to $2000 in festival season, sometimes $500, it all depends on the crowd. That’s cool. If I can do a few of those in a weekend, it’s good coin.
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“In Montreal, I was a rave painter for a while,” says Ep1c of this giant, 6x9-foot canvas, only a portion of which is shown here, painted with black-light glow paint. “I did a lot of these ─ four a week sometimes. That’s a lot!”
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