Surf Artist - Frank Errickson
photos courtesy of Frank Errickson
by Frank Errickson
posted 2005-07-24

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Funny what our mind's eye sees in relation to our imagination. Frank Errickson sees the world, and especially the world of waves, as one big colorful and unique palette from which he delivers amazing pieces of art. There are a lot of people who can paint but at 18 years old this young surf artist is delivering some remarkable pieces. From his Paintings and murals to his stained glass and tiki's, Frank shows a maturity in composition and texture that must make all his teachers proud. He is a true ocean lover, red hot surfer, and environmentalist well beyond his years. We asked him to tell us about himself as though he was surfing his local New Jersey break on a beautiful fall day. Here is Frank Errickson and his Art.

BIOGRAPHY

Being that I owe everything in my life to my parents, I think you must first learn a little bit about them before you learn anything about me. Although they no longer support themselves from art, when they were younger they traveled and lived around the country, doing various art shows and working to simply get by. My father is a woodworker who makes furniture among other things in exotic hardwoods (Hawaiian curly koa being his favorite wood). He is now getting into inlaying his pieces with custom designs in abalone, various rocks, coral, etc.

Eventually we would both like to collaborate on custom furniture in which I provide the tropical/surf themed stained glass windows. My father is also an extremely talented musician. He has played acoustic guitar since he was younger than me and began playing the steel drums a few years ago. My mother was a potter, jewelry artist, and also made elaborate and complicated macramé weavings. She loves helping people and is an extremely compassionate woman among other things. I could go on for pages about what they mean to me, what I've learned from them, etc., but I think one of the most important things I've gotten from them is that wealth and status are not what is important in life.

Friends, family, being happy, and helping others is what life is about. They raised me to be aware of the world, the environment, and people in general. They gave me a broad perspective on life; to understand that no matter what you think you know or how set in your ways you may be, things will always change and so will your outlook on life.

Now that you know about my parents, it seems you should learn about my background and growing up. I was born and still live in New Jersey a few minutes from the beach. My earliest memories include going to Island Beach State Park (a local, undeveloped stretch of beach) with my mom, dad, and older brother in our camper and spending every weekend there. We would all bodyboard, fish, throw Frisbee, and go diving/swimming during the day and then sit by a fire at night. This is where my love of the ocean began.

It was not long before my brother (5 years older) began surfing with my dad (who surfed but his true love was bodyboarding). Because everything he did was automatically cool since he was older, I had to try surfing. Although at first I was frustrated at how hard it was and the difficulty in learning (keep in mind I was in 2nd grade at the time) once I finally stood up and rode straight into the beach I was hooked. As my brother and I spent more and more time in the ocean with our dad and began to progress, we started taking family surf trips to the Outer Banks in North Carolina (one of the better places on the East Coast for surf).

It was on these trips that my love of traveling began. Although a 9 hour drive is hardly considered a real surf trip, it seemed like the other side of the planet to me at the time and the whole family loved it. I basically became obsessed with surfing and started to surf all year. Surfing in New Jersey in the winter is no easy task and often times requires walking through waist-deep snow to get to the water.

Basically I'd surf everyday and as I continued to progress I began to want to surf more challenging waves in different parts of the world. Eventually I convinced my parents to save up and take a trip to the North Shore of Oahu. I also had the opportunity to go to Costa Rica and was invited to go to Tahiti this summer with some friends. But the North Shore was the place that I fell in love with. The atmosphere, the people, all were so inviting. I also discovered that I love big reefbreak barrels (Pipe being my favorite wave that I've surfed so far in my life). That's basically the "non-art" part of my life.

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