Following Passing of Mother, Eriq Rediscovers His Love of Art and Learns Positive Coping
"Hi, my name is Eriq Martin and I’m an up and coming artist in the SW DC area. I wasn’t always involved in art. I like to play sports and spend time with friends and family. It was around the beginning of my senior year of high school and I took an art class and the first assignment was to complete a portrait piece. For my portrait piece, I choose one of my favorite musical artist Tupac. While completing this portrait, I discovered this new found love and respect for art. After high school, I headed off to college. I attended Monroe Community College in Rochester, New York where I stayed for a short period of time but decided to go back home and follow this idea I had of challenging myself to draw more pictures like the ones I drew in high school. First, I knew I wanted to find a job to support myself living back at home so I drew portraits of Jimi Hendrix and Michael Jackson while also completing a cartoon piece. With these pictures, I wanted to see if I could sell them but I didn’t know where to start. That is when I decided to put these pictures on apps such as Offer up and Let-Go. I was working a 9-5 at the time when suddenly I received a notification from Offer Up. The inquiry was an offer for me to draw piece of Mario & Luigi. From there I gained the motivation and confidence to keep going which is when I decided on a goal to open up my own pop-up shop. My ultimate goal is to have my own gallery to display my art as well as other artists work, host events and have different merchandise to sell such as t-shirts with my art pieces on them. This place will be called HUMBLE PAINTINGS."
Eriq Martin, a resident of a public housing community in Washington, DC, is an ambitious young man with a bright future who recently suffered the loss of a parent. Neighbors can often find him selling his art on public sidewalks throughout the city. We most recently found him in Chinatown, just outside the metro. "I have known Eriq for several years and seen tremendous growth. I have two of Eriq's abstract paintings that I absolutely love," said Public Health Liberation executive director Christopher WIlliams. "This young man creates artwork that has technique and depth far beyond his years. I encourage our readers to consider a direct donation to him using his Venmo @Eriq-Martin-2. Community leaders are working on helping him to secure funding for his art career.".
